NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Exegetic.for salvation; that God requires of the sinner not merely the abandonment of the sinful part,but also the amends of penance, and warns men 522 that they must not dream that the graceof baptism will free them from the obligation to live a godly life. The value of tradition isinsisted on. 523 Every nation, as well as every church, is said to have its own guardian angel. 524The excommunication reserved for certain gross sins is represented 525 as a necessarymeans enjoined by St. Paul to prevent the spread of wickedness. It is said 526 to be an oldtradition that on leaving Paradise Adam went to live in Jewry, and there died; that after hisdeath, his skull appearing bare, it was carried to a certain place hence named “place of askull,” and that for this reason Jesus Christ, Who came to destroy death’s kingdom, willedto die on the spot where the first fruits of mortality were interred. 527On Is. v. 14, “Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure,” 528it is remarked that these are figurative expressions to denote the multitude of souls thatperish. At the same time an alternative literal meaning is admitted, the mouth being theopening through which the souls of the damned are precipitated into a dark region beneaththe earth.It is noted in some mss. that the Commentary was given to the world by an anonymouspresbyter after St. Basil’s death, who may have abstained from publishing it because it wasin an unfinished state. Erasmus was the first to undertake to print it, and to translate it intoLatin but he went no further than the preface. It was printed in Paris in 1556 by Tilmann,with a lengthy refutation of the objections of Erasmus. 529l522 § 39.523 cf. De Sp. S. p. .524 § 240.525 § 55.526 § 141.527 The tradition that Adam’s skull was found at the foot of the cross gave rise to the frequent representationof a skull in Christian art. Instances are given by Mr. Jameson, Hist. of our Lord, i. 22. Jeremy Taylor, (Life ofour Lord, Part iii. § xv.) quotes Nonnus (In Joann. xix. 17): Εἰσόκε χῶρον ἵκανε φατιζομένοιο κρανίου Αδὰμπρωτογόνοιο φερώνυμον ἄντυγι κόρσης. cf. Origen, In Matt. Tract. 35, and Athan, De Pass. et Cruc. Jeromespeaks of the tradition in reference to its association with the words “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall allbe made alive,” as “smooth to the ear, but not true.” One version of the tale was that Noah took Adam’s boneswith him in the ark; that on Ararat they were divided, and the head fell to Seth’s share. This he buried at Golgotha.cf. Fabricius i. 61.528 LXX. ἐπλάτυνεν ὁ ῾Αδης τὴν φυχὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ διήνοιξε τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ.529 cf. Ceillier VI. viii. 2.86