Against Marcion 2.25

Now, to dispose of everything of this kind, I shall go on to interpret and clear up the other pettinesses, weaknesses, and incongruities, as you think them. God calls out: “Adam, where are you?” — not knowing, of course, where he was; and when Adam pleads the shame of his nakedness, God asks whether he has tasted of the tree — being uncertain, of course! On the contrary, he was neither uncertain of the deed nor ignorant of the place. Rather, it was fitting that the man hiding in the consciousness of his sin should be summoned to come out into the Lord's sight, not by the mere calling of his name but with some reproach, even then, for what he had done. For “Adam, where are you?” is not to be read in a simple, that is, a questioning tone, but in an emphatic, striking, and accusing one: “Adam, where are you!” — that is, you are lost, you are no longer here — so that the cry is one both of rebuke and of grief. Otherwise, from the eyes of him who holds the whole world in his hand like a nest, whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth, some corner of paradise had escaped, no doubt, so that he could not see Adam, wherever he was, before calling him — both hiding and eating of the forbidden fruit! The hare or the petty thief does not escape the watchman of your vineyard or garden; so think that God, sharper-eyed from on high, cannot miss anything beneath him. Fool, to turn up your nose at so great a proof of divine majesty and of human instruction! God asks as though uncertain so that here too, proving that man has free choice, he might give him room, in the matter of denial or confession, to confess his sin of his own accord and so to lighten it. So too he asks Cain where his brother is, as though he had not already heard Abel's blood crying out from the earth, so that Cain too might have the power, by the same power of choice, to deny his sin of his own accord and so to aggravate it. And so examples were established for us of confessing rather than denying sins, so that even then the gospel teaching might begin: “By your mouth you will be justified, and by your mouth you will be condemned.”

For although Adam was given over to death because of the state of the law, hope is kept safe for him, as the Lord says: “Behold, Adam has become like one of us” — concerning, that is, man's future adoption into divinity. And then what follows? “And now, lest he stretch out his hand and take of the tree of life and live forever.” For by inserting “and now,” a word of present time, he shows that he has made a delay of life which is temporary and for the present. And so he cursed neither Adam himself nor Eve, as candidates for restoration, as relieved by their confession; but Cain he both cursed and, when Cain wished to atone for his sin by death, forbade him to die for the time being, since besides his crime he was burdened also with its denial. This, then, will be the ignorance of our God, which is feigned so that sinning man may not be ignorant of what he must do. Again, going down to Sodom and Gomorrah he says: “I will see whether they are doing altogether according to the cry that has come to me; and if not, that I may know” — here too, no doubt, uncertain from ignorance and eager to know! Or is the tone of the utterance necessary here too, expressing not a doubting but a threatening sense under the guise of inquiry? And if you also mock God's coming down, as though he could not carry out judgment without coming down, take care you do not strike your own god too. For he too came down to accomplish what he wished.