This is part 7 of the series blogging through the book On the Incarnation by Athanasius. You might want to start with part 1 and work your way through the series.

When we read passages in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5 we find that death entered the world when Adam sinned. That gives us an interesting question to ponder. Was mankind created in an immortal body before the Fall?

For Athanasius the answer is no. But before you throw the heretic card down, let’s look at what his view entailed.

After alluding to his prior work, Athanasius is ready to “relate also the things concerning the Incarnation of the Word and expound his divine manifestation to us.” In order to understand why the Word, who by nature is without a body, chose to appear to us in a body, one, Athanasius argues, must go back to the beginning.

Perhaps you are wondering for what reason, having proposed to talk about the Incarnation of the Word, we are now expounding the origin of human beings. Yet this too is not distinct from the aim of our exposition. For speaking of the manifestation of the Savior to us, it is necessary also to speak of the origin of human beings, in order that you might know that our own cause was the occasion of his descent and that our own transgression evoked the Word’s love for human beings, so that the Lord both came to us and appeared among human beings. (On the Incarnation ch 4) ¹

Athanasius treated the topic of creation in much more detail in his earlier work. We have already explored that in this series. We will pick up Athanasius’ description of the Fall in broad strokes, a topic that spans several early chapters.