By Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani
Adam is man. It is the name of the first man, according to Holy Scripture. He is the first-formed, our forefather, the representative of the human race. He is the most perfect divine creation. Adam — man — is the crown of the entire creation of the all-wise God.
Undoubtedly, in the Book of Genesis, the first three chapters are foundational. They describe the creation of the world, of irrational creation, but also the creation and formation of man. They also speak of his original state, as well as of his fall. They recount the exile of Adam and Eve from Paradise and make reference to the divine promise concerning restoration. Certainly, in the sacred text, the expressions are anthropomorphic, so as to be accessible to our understanding; yet within the words and explanations are hidden profound and most subtle symbols and realities. The ultimate purpose is the realization of the content of “according to the image” and the journey toward “according to the likeness.”
Thus, in the narrative of Genesis, both the greatness and the wretchedness of man are presented and revealed. First, we shall write about the greatness of man. This consists in the fact that man is a divine creation of the infinite love of the One and Triune God, who is truly Love. Consequently, man is not the result of random coincidences of blind, mindless forces. The creation of man was decided by the three Persons of the one Godhead. “Let us make man,” says Genesis (1:26) in the plural number. And God formed man as a psychosomatic being — body and soul. This is the dual composition of man, the spiritual and the material element in one harmonious unity.
This dual composition of man is clearly taught in Genesis when it states: “And God formed man from the dust of the earth (material element) and breathed into his face the breath of life (spiritual element), and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). John Chrysostom underscores this as follows: “This living being, man, I mean, is twofold, having kinship both with heaven and with earth; for through his noetic essence he has communion with the powers above, and through his sensible nature he is joined to the things of earth, being a precise bond of each creation” (PG 55, 182).
More specifically, Genesis writes: “Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness” (1:26). And God made man. Precisely, the highest and unique value of man lies in this biblical phrase: “according to our image and according to our likeness.” Man therefore bears a divine seal and a relationship of dependence upon the Creator and reference to Him. In other words, there exists a kinship between man and God. In the “according to our image” are included such gifts as reason, free will, dominion, and sociability. In the “according to our likeness” we have preserved the potential for becoming like God, that is, deification by grace. As Gregory of Nyssa says, “The ‘according to the image’ we possess by nature, but the ‘according to the likeness’ we achieve by deliberate choice” (PG 44, 273).
More particularly, concerning the original state of man, the great dogmatic Father of the Church, John of Damascus, writes characteristically:
“God, therefore, created man without malice, upright, virtuous, free from sorrow, free from care, adorned with the brilliance of every virtue, endowed with all good things, like a kind of second world — a small world within the great — another angel, a worshiper, composite, a spectator of visible creation, a knower of the mysteries of the invisible realm, king of earthly things yet governed from above, earthly and heavenly, temporary and immortal, visible and invisible, intermediate between greatness and lowliness, the same being both spirit and flesh: spirit on account of grace, flesh on account of pride; the one in order that he might remain steadfast and glorify the Benefactor, the other in order that he might suffer, and by suffering remember and be corrected, being humbled by the greatness of the spirit. He created him as a living being who, according to divine economy, lives here, that is, in the present life, and who passes elsewhere, that is, into the life to come; and the culmination of the mystery is that he is deified through obedience to God; indeed, he is deified by participation in the divine illumination, without being changed into God in essence” (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, II, 22).
Thus Adam was endowed with gifts and graces — gifts of original righteousness — chief among them sinlessness and immortality.
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The first element of human existence is, as we have said, greatness. As a second, there follows his wretchedness.
Indeed, the wretchedness of sin came. The first-formed did not remain in their original righteousness, but through the transgression of the divine commandment, having been led astray, they fell from it. They were handed over to evil, to corruption, and to death. Here lies what is theologically called the “ancestral sin,” which every human being who is born bears by inheritance. The adverse and destructive consequences of the fall are now, as other bitter fruits of disobedience and sin, the debasement and darkening of the “according to the image” — though not its total destruction — the loss of the gifts of original righteousness, the expulsion from Paradise, and the most bitter fruit of all: death itself.
Thus the Book of Genesis describes, with concise formulation and simple expressions, and sets before us vividly, Adam at twilight, the footsteps and the voice of God. These are the unique and astonishing biblical verses in all of world anthropology — verses 8 and 9 of the third chapter of the first book of Holy Scripture.
The sacred text writes: “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden at twilight, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called Adam and said to him, ‘Adam, where are you?’”
Here, in these unadorned expressions, worthy of particular attention is this entire encounter of fallen man — Adam — with his Creator, God.
First of all, we observe that this meeting takes place at twilight.* The whole morning had passed — that part of the day of action and work — but also the midday, the burning midday of the temptation of the misanthrope, the devil, who cast Adam into the abyss of the fall. Yet we also note that God does not come at night — again out of fatherly love — so that the guilty ones, the first-formed, might not be frightened. He comes at twilight. For twilight is the time of reflection, of self-examination, of self-knowledge — the time of conclusions. The All-wise and Loving God comes at twilight. Oh, that twilight! Yes, God walks along the familiar path of the garden of Eden, of Paradise, but Adam is absent. And Adam and Eve “heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden at twilight, and they hid.” Every day they used to run to God with joy and inexpressible gladness and delight of soul. Now, they “hid” out of agitation and fear. Yet God loves; He wishes to meet them. If Adam has altered and changed, God remains who He is — the unchangeable, the immutable, the infinite and eternal, the all-knowing and all-good. Then, therefore, “the Lord God called Adam and said to him, ‘Adam, where are you?’” Adam, where are you? This, in the present case, is the voice of God — profoundly moving.
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Indeed, the human drama is written in Paradise, and the misery of disobedience is due to man. Yet we live this condition daily. It is the transgression of the divine commandment and at the same time the avoidance of assuming our responsibilities. We do not listen to God. We turn a deaf ear to His calls. We do not have “ears to hear.” Nevertheless, let us not forget that we are all children of Adam, and from those earliest times God continually calls us. The divine voice has never ceased to be heard: “Adam, where are you?” Man, where are you? Where do you stand? I, the Lord God, am here. And you, Adam?
Yet the All-good God, even in this divine summons of His, ultimately prepares our repentance, our return, and our obedience to Him. Truly, how shall we respond to this call?
Source: Translatted by John Sanidopoulos.
* The Greek word deilinon can be translated as "twilight" or even "dusk", though the Hebrew word ruach is more sensory and is translated as "cool of the day."
