Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Ephesians 2:1

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

There is, we know, a corporal, and there is also a spiritual, dying. Of the first it is no crime to partake, nor is there any peril in it, inasmuch as there is no blame attached to it, for it is a matter of nature, not of deliberate choice. It had its origin in the transgression of the first-created man, and thenceforward in its issue it passed into a nature, and, at all events, will quickly be brought to a termination; whereas this spiritual dying, being a matter of deliberate choice, has criminality, and has no termination.

Homily on Ephesians 4 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Above he said that God manifested in us the same power and working as in Christ. Of Him it is said that He raised Him from the dead and seated Him above all. And then now he speaks also of us: "and you," he says, "who were dead" (not by bodily death, which began with Adam, but by the death of the soul, which comes from ourselves, the death of sin) He raised and lifted up. …

Commentary on Ephesians ↗

Western Saints

Jerome

[The Greeks] speak of trespass as the first step toward sin. It is when a secret thought steals in, and, though we offer a measure of collusion, it does not yet drive us on to ruin.… But sin is something else. It is when the collusion is actually completed and reaches its goal.

Commentary on Ephesians 2:1-5 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Above, the Apostle enumerated the blessings bestowed on the human race in general through Christ (1:3). Here the Apostle sets them in relief by comparing them to mankind's own former condition. Their past state can be considered in two ways: first as a state of sin, and secondly as a state of paganism. Therefore, the Apostle does two things: First, he recounts the blessings shown them in regard to their first state. Secondly, he recalls those related to their second state (2:11). …

Commentary on Ephesians ↗