Anthony’s Cell

This audio reading presents the article on Ancestral Sin from the Orthodox Study Bible. It begins with God creating mankind, establishing paradise, and commanding Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying that on the day he ate from it he would die by death (Genesis 2:16-17). Since Adam and Eve did not physically die that day, the words 'you shall die' point to a spiritual death through separation from God, the source of life.

Ancestral sin is Adam's willing disobedience, by which he fell from God's path to perfection. The reading lists the consequences of the fall: mortality, an inclination toward sin, and the fall of the divine image in man, along with sweat, toil, hunger, thirst, weariness, sorrow, pain, suffering, sickness, tribulations, tragedy, and tears.

It draws on Saint Gregory the Theologian, who says death cuts off sin so evil may not be everlasting, turning God's punishment into a mercy. On the question of guilt, the article states that we are not guilty because of Adam's sin but because of our own. Yet because mankind fell from God's grace through Adam's disobedience, people now have a propensity toward sin, since sin enters through fear of death.

The divine image in man is fallen but not totally corrupted or obliterated. Human nature remains inherently good, and people are still capable of doing good, though bondage to death and the devil can dull their perception of what is good. The intellectual, desiring, and irascible aspects of the soul remain natural and neutral after the fall; they can be used for good or harm, like iron made into a plow or into a sword.

The reading closes with Christ's death and resurrection, by which he conquered the devil and death, freed mankind from the fear of death, and made possible communion with God in which people become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

An audio reading presents an article from the Orthodox Study Bible titled 'The Holy Trinity: Creator and Savior,' read aloud with singing at the beginning and end. The reading explains that the Holy Trinity is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, distinct but not separate and not three gods, one in essence or nature.

The Father is the unbegotten fountainhead of deity, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. The article traces the Trinity's work in creating the world through Genesis: the Father made heaven and earth, the Spirit hovered over creation and co-created, and the Son as the Word of God made the light, all with creative power and equality.

In Genesis 1:26, the pronouns 'us' and 'our' reveal a plurality of divine persons operating in unity out of the one divine nature. The reading then shows how the Trinity saves the world: the Father is our redeemer, the Son inherits the people saved by him, and the words 'holy, holy, holy' in Isaiah 6 declare the three persons who save us.

Isaiah 44:3 shows the Father pouring out his Spirit like water on dry ground, and Isaiah 48:16-17 shows the Son declaring that the Father and the Spirit sent him to redeem the world. Although the Son alone became a man, all three persons save mankind. The New Testament affirms the Trinity in the Old Testament: the Word was with the Father at creation, Jesus identifies himself as existing before Abraham as 'I am,' appearing to Moses in the burning bush, and the Spirit's descent at Pentecost affirms his Old Testament presence.

Hebrews 1:8-10 affirms the Father speaking to the Son in the Psalms, acknowledging the Son as God and creator of the world. The incarnate Son fully reveals the Trinity: at the Annunciation the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, and at the baptism in the Jordan the Father's voice was heard and the Spirit descended like a dove.

As the main hymn for Theophany says, when you, oh Lord, were baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest.