As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 1 Cor. 15:22.
Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. 1 Tim. 2:13, 14.
Because he was still an infant in age, Adam was not yet able to receive knowledge worthily. For even nowadays, too, when a child is born, he is not at once able to eat bread. Rather, he is first nourished with milk. . . . It would have been the same with Adam. The reason God commanded him not to eat of knowledge was not because God begrudged him, as some suppose. Rather, He wished to test Adam, to see whether he would obey His commandment. At the same time, He wished man, infant as he was, to remain simple and sincere for a while longer. Theophilus (c. 180, E), 2.104.
The Lord came to the lost sheep. He made a recapitulation of a very comprehensive dispensation, and He sought after His own handiwork. Therefore, it was necessary for Him to save that very man who had been created after His image and likeness—that is, Adam. . . . Man had been created by God to live. However, he was injured by the serpent who had corrupted him. Now, if after losing life, man would never again return to life (but would be utterly abandoned to death), then God would have been conquered. The wickedness of the serpent would have prevailed over the will of God. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.455.
Inasmuch as man is saved, it is fitting that he who was created as the original man should be saved, too. . . . It was for this reason that, immediately after Adam had transgressed (as the Scripture relates), God pronounced no curse against Adam personally, but only against the ground. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.456.
Adam showed his repentance by his conduct. He did this by means of the girdle of fig-leaves by which he covered himself. For there were many other leaves that would have been less irritating to his body. However, he adopted a garment fitting for his disobedience. For he was awed by the fear of God. . . . Adam had been conquered, and all life was taken away from him. Therefore, when the enemy was conquered in its turn, Adam received new life. So the last enemy, death, is destroyed. For it had taken possession of man at the first. . . . Therefore, everyone who disallows Adam’s salvation, speaks falsely. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.457.
It was possible for God to have made man perfect from the beginning. However, man could not receive such perfection, being as yet an infant. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.521.
Disobedience to God brings death. For that reason, Adam and Eve came under the penalty of death. From that very moment, they were handed over to it. Therefore, they did die in the same day that they ate, for they became death’s debtors. Furthermore, it was one day of the creation. . . . And there are some, again, who relegate the death of Adam to the thousandth year. For since “a day of the Lord is as a thousand years, “ he did not go beyond the thousand years, but died within that period, thereby fulfilling the sentence of his sin. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/ W), 1.551.
Before the Law, Adam spoke prophetically concerning the woman and the naming of the creatures. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.331.
Adam readily chose what was wrong, following his wife. So he neglected what is true and good. On which account he exchanged his immortal life for a mortal life—but not forever. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.369.
Adam was perfect as far as his formation. . . . So the cause [of his sin] lay in his choosing—his choosing what was forbidden. God was not the cause. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.437.
The question propounded to us by the heretics is: Was Adam created perfect or imperfect? If imperfect, how could the work of a perfect God . . . be imperfect? And if Adam was created perfect, how did he transgress the commandment? They shall hear from us in reply that he was not perfect [or complete] at his creation. Rather, he was adapted to the reception of virtue. . . . For God created man for immortality and made him an image of His own nature. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.502.
I cannot easily be silent about that thing concerning which also the very head and fountain of the human race, and of human offense, is not silent. I mean Adam, who was restored by penitential discipline [Gr. exomologesis] to his own Paradise. Tertullian (c. 203, W), 3.666.
God did not actually curse Adam and Eve, because they were candidates for restoration. That is because they had been relieved by confession. Tertullian (c. 207, W), 3.317.
Since Adam was a figure of Christ, Adam’s sleep foreshadowed the death of Christ (who was to sleep a mortal slumber). Similarly, the church, the true mother of the living, was pictured by the wound inflicted on His side. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.222.
Adam gave the various names to the animals before he picked the fruit of the tree. So, before he ate, he prophesied. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.592.
Jesus delivered from the lowest Hades the first man of earth, when that man was lost and bound by the chains of death. Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.170.
We could not have received such a benefit . . . had He not taken up man, the first man of all—the man more precious than all others, purer than all others and capable of receiving Him. But after that man, we, too, will be able to receive Him. Origen (c. 228, E), 9.384.
God, having made man, . . . placed him in Paradise—that is, in a most fruitful and pleasant garden. He planted the garden in the regions of the east with every kind of wood and tree. This was so that man could be nourished by their various fruits. Being free from all labors, man could devote himself entirely to the service of God his Father. Then He gave to man fixed commands, by the observance of which he might continue immortal. Or, if he transgressed them, he would be punished with death. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.62.