Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A demonstration that Adam is the first to be saved by the Lord.
This, then, if we must speak the truth, is that first-formed Adam, the man of whom Scripture says the Lord said: Let us fashion man after our image and likeness; and all of us come from him, and being sprung from him, we have thus taken up his name as well. But when man is to be saved, it is necessary that the man who was formed first should be saved. For it is altogether unreasonable to say that he who was grievously wounded by the enemy, and who first suffered captivity, is not rescued by the one who conquered the enemy, while his children, whom he begot in that same captivity, are indeed rescued. Nor would the enemy yet appear conquered while his original spoils still remain in his possession. It is as if enemies had overpowered certain people and led them away captive and bound, and had kept them in servitude for a long time, so that they even begot children among them; and someone, grieving over those who had been made slaves, should then overpower those same enemies. He would not be acting justly were he to loose only the offspring of the ones taken prisoner from the grip of those who had enslaved their forebears, while leaving the fathers themselves, who had endured the captivity itself, subject to the enemies on whose account he had exacted vengeance in the first place — granting freedom to the children by reason of the vindication of the father, but not releasing the fathers themselves who had endured that very captivity. For God is neither weak nor unjust, he who came to man's aid and restored him to his own freedom.
For this reason also, at the beginning of Adam's transgression, as Scripture relates, God did not curse Adam himself but the ground, in regard to his works, as one of the ancients has said: God transferred the curse onto the ground, so that it should not remain upon man. But as the condemnation for the transgression, man was given toil and hardship upon the earth, eating his food by the sweat of his brow, and going back at last to the earth out of which he had been drawn; and likewise the woman received hardships, and labors, and the groans and sorrows of childbirth, and servitude, that is, that she should serve her husband — so that those cursed by God should not perish altogether, and yet, by not persevering without rebuke, should not hold God in contempt. But the whole curse ran its course upon the serpent, who had seduced them. And God said to the serpent, it says: Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle and above all beasts of the earth. And the Lord says this same thing in the Gospel to those found on the left hand: Go from me, you accursed, into everlasting fire, made ready by my Father for the devil and his messengers — showing that this unending fire was not primarily meant for man, but rather for the one who beguiled man and drove him to offend, namely the ringleader of the revolt, and for whichever angels turned traitor along with him; which fire indeed those also will justly receive who, like him, persist without repentance and without turning back in works of wickedness.