The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus 25:19 Kommentar

Our death comes as a punishment we have been given to drink. We have received this from the stock of our origin as human branches spreading out from the root. The first Adam deserved this because of sin. “Sin had its beginning from a woman,” as it says in Scripture, “and because of her we all die.” And again: “Because of a single human being sin has entered into the world, and death through sin; thus death has caught up all of humanity because all have sinned.” Thus in our nature there is present both guilt and punishment. God created our nature immune from guilt, and, if it had persisted without guilt, it would not then have had to experience the punishment. From our origin we have contracted this, and many other evils are derived from it as well. Therefore guilt and punishment are present in our nature: in the flesh of Jesus there was punishment without guilt because he came and abolished the guilt and the punishment.

Since it has been written, “Sin had its beginning from the woman, and this is why all die,” remember from which member the woman was taken and notice where the Lord was hit by the spear. Remember, I say, our primitive condition because it was not in vain, in fact, that I previously mentioned, “Our old self has been crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Eve, from whom sin had its beginning, was formed by drawing her from the side of the man. While she was drawn from his side, he lay there asleep; Christ was hanging and dead on the cross when he was wounded. To sleep and to die are closely related, and thus so are these two sides, Adam’s side and Christ’s side; the Lord was wounded where our sins originated. But from that side Eve was formed who in her sinning procured death for us; from Christ’s side, however, the church was formed that brought us back to life by giving us birth.