(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Original Sin in the Bible as Read Today." Beginning with "Acceptance of Evolution by Pope John Paul II," be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "New Interpretation of Original Sin.")

Greek Fathers on Grace and Original Sin

It is commonly said that in their writings the Greek Fathers emphasized the divinizing effect of grace and the Spirit, but not so much the existence of original sin. This is basically true. The patristic writers were much more optimistic about human nature than others in the West.

Origen. Origen, for example, along with a number of Greek writers, saw the process of grace at work in the "divinization" of God's created people. In his exegesis of Psalm 82:6 ("I say you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you"), Origen cites Psalm 116:11 ("every human being is a liar"). He says that in and of ourselves we are indeed liars, but we can become gods if we stand on Christ, the Rock. "Thus salvation is attainment of the gift of divinity. Identification with Christ elevates a believer through the humanity of Christ to union with his divinity, thus to deification" (On John, 29, 27, 29; On Prayer 27, 13; quoted by Duffy 1993, 55).

Athanasius. "The Son of God became the son of man so that humans, the children of Adam, might become children of God … sharers in the life of God.… He is Son of God by nature, we by grace" (On the Incarnation and Against the Arians, 8; quoted by Duffy 1993, 64).

On the other hand, Greek patristic writers do admit that there are negative effects on later humanity due to the sin of Adam. Because of what happened in paradise, death, sickness, ignorance, and even weakness of will are now the lot of all. And some of them made statements which point in the direction of a doctrine much like that of original sin, though not in the detailed manner of St. Augustine:

Melito of Sardis. "Upon every soul sin sets its mark and all alike she devoted to death. These must die. So all flesh fell into the power of sin, everybody into the power of death" (170-199 AD, Apology, 54-55; quoted by Quasten 1962, Patrology I, 245¹⁰ ).

Origen. "The Church has received from the apostles the custom of administering baptism even to infants. For those who have been entrusted with the secrets of the divine mysteries knew very well that all are tainted with the stains of sin, which must be washed off by water and the spirit" (185-253 AD, Alexandria and later, Caesarea; In Rom. com. 5,9; quoted by Quasten 1962, II, 83).

Didymus the Blind. "The fall of the first parents is the sin of old from which Jesus cleansed us in His Baptism in the Jordan" (De Trin. 2, 12). "All the children of Adam have inherited it by transmission through the intercourse of their parents. This is why Jesus, born of a Virgin, has not been stained with it" (Contra Man. 8) (313-398 AD, Alexandria; quoted by Quasten 1962, III, 97).

Gregory of Nyssa. In the second part of his Catechesis, beginning with creation and the sin of Adam and Eve, Gregory shows the restoration of the primitive order by the Incarnation and Redemption (335-394 AD, younger brother of St. Basil, bishop of Nyssa, near Caesarea in Cappadocia, Asia Minor; quoted by Quasten 1962, III, 262).

J. N. D. Kelly (1978), the noted patristic scholar, summarizes the points of these writers' teachings as follows:

1. they take it for granted that all people were involved in Adam's rebellious act…. e.g. … St. Gregory of Nyssa … adds that men ought to ask for forgiveness daily since they share in Adam's fall (350).



2. they hold that the fall clearly affected our moral nature…. Gregory of Nazianzus traces his own congenital weakness of will to it, and Gregory of Nyssa states that 'human nature is weak in regard to doing good, having been once for all hamstrung through weakness (350-51).



3. passages … suggest that certain fathers envisaged also the transmission of sin itself. Basil actually uses the phrase, bidding the rich give food to the poor so as to wipe out the sin which Adam transmitted when he ate the forbidden fruit. Chrysostom seems to have spoken of an "ancestral obligation" written out by Adam amounting to "the first portion of a debt which we have increased by our subsequent sins." But Gregory of Nyssa is much more outspoken…. sin is 'congenital to our nature,'…: Evil was mixed with our nature from the beginning…. Such thoughts are more frequent in Pseudo-Didymus, who speaks of the ancient "sin" of Adam in virtue of which all men are held under sin (351).

"Though falling short of Augustinianism, there was here the outline of a real theory of original sin" (Kelly 1978, 351). And Duffy (1993) states that the basic concern of the Greek Fathers "was simply to maintain that God alone was the ultimate source of salvation" (64). We will argue that this is an essential insight also of the doctrine of original sin, that humans cannot save themselves but need God's grace to attain their final goal.

10. Double citations are included here for your convenience. There are a number of translations of the Greek texts. The ones given in Johannes Quasten's volumes are only one such translation. To check the accuracy of the translation, you need to know the name of the ancient document from which the citation is taken, which can be verified in different translations. Quasten's book might be much harder to get than other translations of the works by the Greek Fathers.

Words highlighted in green appear in the Glossary.