---
title: "Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen"
author: "Various Church Fathers"
translator: "S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Church Fathers"
section: 42 of 199
url: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/42/
cite: "Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.), Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen, section 42. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/42/"
---

# Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen

*Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)*

Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian, and Origen's On First Principles and Against Celsus.

## 42. Genesis · 3 of 5

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/42/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/42/#p-N

[¶0] With a twin juice for functions several.”

[¶1] And, no less blind meantime than Night herself,

[¶2] Deep night ’gan hold them, nor had e’en a robe

[¶3] 90 Covered their new-formed limbs.

[¶4] Amid these haunts,

[¶5] And on mild berries reared, a foamy snake,

[¶6] Surpassing living things in sense astute,

[¶7] Was creeping silently with chilly coils.

[¶8] He, brooding over envious lies instinct

[¶9] 95 With gnawing sense, tempts the soft heart beneath

[¶10] The woman’s breast: “Tell me, why shouldst thou dread

[¶11] The apple’s happy seeds? Why, hath not

[¶12] All known fruits hallowed? Whence if thou be prompt

[¶13] To cull the honeyed fruits, the golden world

[¶14] 100 Will on its starry pole return.” But she

[¶15] Refuses, and the boughs forbidden fears

[¶16] To touch. But yet her breast ’gins be o’er come

[¶17] With sense infirm. Straightway, as she at length

[¶18] With snowy tooth the dainty morsels bit,

[¶19] 105 Stained with no cloud the sky serene up-lit!

[¶20] Then taste, instilling lure in honeyed jaws,

[¶21] To her yet uninitiated lord

[¶22] Constrained her to present the gift; which he

[¶23] No sooner took, then—night effaced!:—their eyes

[¶24] 110 Shone out serene in the resplendent world.

[¶25] When, then, they each their body bare espied,

[¶26] And when their shameful parts they see, with leaves

[¶27] Of fig they shadow them.

[¶28] By chance, beneath

[¶29] The sun’s now setting light, they recognise

[¶30] 115 The sound of the Lord’s voice, and, trembling, haste

[¶31] To bypaths. Then the Lord of heaven accosts

[¶32] The mournful Adam: “Say, where now thou art.”

[¶33] Who suppliant thus answers: “Thine address,

[¶34] O Lord, O Mighty One, I tremble at,

[¶35] 120 Beneath my fearful heart; and, being bare,

[¶36] I faint with chilly dread.” Then said the Lord:

[¶37] “Who hath the hurtful fruits, then, given you?”

[¶38] “This woman, while she tells me how her eyes

[¶39] With brilliant day promptly perfused were,

[¶40] 125 And on her dawned the liquid sky serene,

[¶41] And heaven’s sun and stars, o’ergave them me!”

[¶42] Forthwith God’s anger frights perturbed Eve,

[¶43] While the Most High inquires the authorship

[¶44] Of the forbidden act. Hereon she opes