Wednesday, September 16, 2009

John Chrysostom: Don't Give Original Sin Lordship through your Imitation

Eve sinned by tasting of the tree, and was condemned for it; accordingly, in your turn do not commit a sin that is different but perhaps graver than hers. It is worth saying this both in the case of slaves and in the case of the governed, that while the first parents introduced sin, their successors clung to the power of lordship by the sins they committed.

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Sermon 5 on Genesis, in St. John Chrysostom, Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis, p. 81 (2004), Robert C. Hill translator.