Tag Archives: eschatology

Second Adam

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Mosaics in the Palatine Chapel, palace of the Norman kings of Sicily, built by Roger II, Palermo, Sicily, Italy (built in the AD 1100s). We see Adam & Eve with the serpent in the top row; below them the angels escort Lot and his family away from Sodom and Gomorrah. (Lot’s wife is the white statue of salt.) Read about artistic depictions of Eve and the serpent here.



It is written, “The first Adam was made into a living creature;” the last Adam is made into a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual Adam that is first, but the natural; the second Adam is the spiritual. The first Adam is made of the dust of the earth; the second Adam is from heaven. (1 Cor. 15:45-46)

St. Paul refers to Genesis 2:7 (“Adam became a living creature”) to make his point that Christ, who is the Second Adam–the Ultimate Adam–is the model for human existence. The first Adam received life; the second Adam gives life. The first Adam (in Genesis) is made from the dust of the earth; the second Adam comes down to earth from heaven in order to raise the first Adam to heaven.

The first man was made from the slime of the earth. The second man came from heaven. By using the word MAN, he taught the birth of this person from the Virgin …. [was both human and] from the Holy Spirit who came upon the Virgin. Thus, precisely while he was human he was also from heaven.

St. Hilary of Poitiers, On the Holy Trinity, chapter 10.

Just as Christ was “the Second Adam,” his Mother is frequently referred to as “the Second Eve.” Justin Martyr wrote in AD 150

He became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her: wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God; and she replied, ‘Be it unto me according to thy word.” And by her has He been born, to whom we have proved so many scriptures refer, and by whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him; but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and believe upon Him.

St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 100

It was also St. Irenaeus of Lyons who wrote in AD 182

In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) But Eve was disobedient, for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. … having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race.

And on this account does the law term a woman betrothed to a man, the wife of him who had betrothed her, although she was as yet a virgin; thus indicating the back-reference from Mary to Eve … For the Lord, having been born “the First-begotten of the dead,” (Revelation 1:5) and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die. (1 Cor. 15:20-22)

Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him. So it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 3, chapter 22

Just as Adam and Eve were both necessary for the creation of the world, so Christ and his Most Pure Mother were both necessary for the salvation of the world. Just as we share in the dust of the first Adam, we now share the spirit and resurrection of the Second–Ultimate!–Adam who was able to be born because the Second–Ultimate!–Virgin made the right choice when given the opportunity to love or reject God.

A Little Scroll

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This fresco on Mt. Athos from the 17th century depicts the opening of chapter 10 of the Apocalypse: St. John sees the massive angel, standing with a foot in the sea and a foot on land, who gives him a little scroll to eat.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head: his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire. He held in his hand a little scroll which was open…. He said to me, “take it and eat it.” (Apocalypse 10:1-2, 9)

St. John takes the small, open scroll and eats it although the angel warns that it will taste sweet in his mouth and then turn his stomach sour. “You must prophesy over many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,” St. John is told after eating the scroll.

Eating a scroll is often the first thing a prophet is told to do (Ezekiel 3). The prophet ingests the message he is to deliver and integrates it into himself. It becomes his message as well as the message of God. (The scroll that Ezekiel eats is also sweet to taste but produces “laments and words of woe.” Both Ezekiel and the Apocalypse are associated with the liturgical season of Eastertide; the Death and Resurrection of Christ are simultaneously blessing and judgement which are described in terms of the Last Days by the prophet and the apostle.)

Given that the Apocalypse is a liturgical commentary, what does this episode correspond to in the Eucharist? Consuming the little scroll can also correspond with receiving Holy Communion, as does Isaiah’s lips being touched by a heavenly coal. Each communicant is called to the same vocation as the seer although details of how that vocation is exercised may differ.

Although this scroll is small, unlike the others mentioned in the Apocalypse, its most important distinguishing feature is that it is open rather than closed. An open message is one that will be fulfilled shortly after it is proclaimed; a closed message is about an event that will happen long after the proclamation is made. The message that will be accomplished soon is the preaching of the Gospel to “many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” Prophets like Ezekiel were sent only to the Israelites; John–and the Church as a whole–are sent to the whole world. The ingathering of the nations to join Israel in receiving the blessings of God was proclaimed by the prophets as one of the signs that the Last Days had finally come; the nations responding to the preaching of the Gospel is a sign that the Last Days have now arrived.

The Apocalypse is, in many ways, the proclamation of the same message that the prophets proclaimed but that message has now been fulfilled-accomplished. The Last Judgement–while still a distant event in linear time–has begun and is already present in the spiritual-liturgical life of the Church. Eternity has begun to erupt into the world of space-time. The Apocalypse is not a blueprint or a timeline for something to happen in the future; it describes the life of the Church now.

The fancy theological way to refer to this is “realized eschatology.” Eschatology is the Greek word for “last things.” The last things have been realized/accomplished in the life-ministry-Passion of Christ and are now playing out in the life of the Church. Sometimes “realized eschatology” is contrasted with consistent eschatology, which insists that the Last Days are still entirely in the future. The two concepts are combined by some modern authors in inaugurated eschatology.