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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
But how was Adam not deceived? If he was not deceived, he did not then transgress? Attend carefully. The woman said, "The serpent beguiled me." But the man did not say, The woman deceived me, but, "she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Now it is not the same thing to be deceived by a fellow-creature, one of the same kind, as by an inferior and subordinate animal. This is truly to be deceived. Compared therefore with the woman, he is spoken of as "not deceived." For she was beguiled by an inferior and subject, he by an equal. …
Gregory of Nyssa
And the fact too that this grace was revealed by means of a woman, itself agrees with the interpretation which we have given. For since, as the Apostle tells us, "the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression," and was by her disobedience foremost in the revolt from God, for this cause she is the first witness of the resurrection, that she might retrieve by her faith in the resurrection the overthrow caused by her disobedience, and that as, by making herself at the beginning a minister and advocate to her husband of the …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Why does the apostle say that Adam was not deceived? Because Scripture does not say this either; on the contrary, the woman said, "the serpent beguiled me" (Gen. 3:13), but Adam does not say, "the woman deceived me," but rather, "she gave to me" (Gen. 3:12). It is not the same thing to be beguiled by a beast—a servant and subordinate. Therefore the latter is properly deception. So in comparison with the woman, the apostle says of Adam that he was not deceived. Adam did not even see "that the tree was good for food" (Gen. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
So, too, we must believe that Adam transgressed the law of God, not because he was deceived into believing that the lie was true but because in obedience to a social compulsion he yielded to Eve, as husband to wife, as the only man in the world to the only woman. It was not without reason that the apostle wrote, "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived." He means, no doubt, that Eve accepted the serpent's word as true, whereas Adam refused to be separated from his partner even in a union of sin. …
Thomas Aquinas
Second, from the order of sinning. For the orders of coming to be and of ceasing to be are contrary, because that which is first in coming to be is last in ceasing to be. But sin is the ceasing to be of a nature. Therefore, coming to be first begins from Adam, and ceasing to be from the woman. Hence he says, Adam was not seduced, i.e., first, because he was the stronger; but the tempter approached the weaker in order that the stronger be seduced more readily. Here he alludes to Adam's words in Genesis. …
Bonaventure
The transgression of the precept was common to both, although from different causes, for it was not the man, but the woman who was deceived; in both, however, namely in the man and the woman, there was a disordering from the highest to the lowest, because first in the mind or in reason, then in sensuality, and lastly in deed. …
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