We became sinners through the
disobedience of Adam in this way: he was created in immorality and in life, and
in the paradise of pleasure his manner was always and entirely absorbed in the
vision of God, his body in tranquility and quiet, without any shameful
pleasure; for there was in him no uproar of untoward movements. But when he
fell into sin and became subject to corruption, then impure pleasures crept in
upon the nature of the flesh, and the law of the violent was brought forth in
our members. Our nature, therefore, contracted the illness of sin “through the
disobedience of the one,” that is, of Adam; and thus “the many were made
sinners,” not as if they had sinned along with Adam, for they did not yet
exist, but having his nature, which fell under the law of sin. (Cyril of
Alexandria, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, The Faith of the Early
Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The
Liturgical Press, 1979], 3:225)
