Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 5.21
He recapitulated all things by recapitulating them in Himself, provoking war against our enemy and crushing the one who first led us captive in Adam, bruising his head just as God told the serpent in Genesis: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). For the One who was to be born of the Virgin according to the likeness of Adam was foretold to bruise the serpent's head — that is, the seed concerning whom the Apostle says in the letter to the Galatians: "The law of works was established until the seed to whom the promise was made should come" (Galatians 3:19). The same letter makes this even clearer: "But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, made from a woman." The enemy could not have been justly conquered unless a man born of a woman conquered him, since it was through a woman that dominion over man was first established, the adversary setting himself in opposition to man. That is why the Lord also confesses Himself to be the Son of Man, the first man from whom the creation according to the woman was formed, recapitulating it in Himself so that just as our race descended into death through the conquered man, so also we might ascend into life through the Conqueror; and just as death won the palm against us through a man, so we will win the palm against death through a man.
The Lord would not have recapitulated in Himself that ancient and first enmity against the serpent — fulfilling the Creator's promise and perfecting His command — if He had come from another father. But because He is the one and the same God who formed us at the beginning and sent His Son in the end, the Lord perfected that command by being born of a woman, destroying our adversary and perfecting humanity according to the image and likeness. He did not destroy the enemy by any other means than the words of the Law and the Father's command, using them as instruments for the destruction and overthrow of the apostate angel. First, after forty days of fasting — like Moses and Elijah — He became hungry, so we would know He is a true and steadfast man: it is proper to a fasting man to hunger. This also gave the adversary an opening to attack. In the beginning he seduced a man who was not hungry to transgress God's command through food; in the end he could not persuade the hungry One to turn aside from the food that comes from God. When he said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread," the Lord repulsed him by the command of the Law: "It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone" (Deuteronomy 8:3). To the challenge "If you are the Son of God" He was silent, but He confounded the devil by confessing His humanity and, through the Father's word, broke the first assault. The fullness humanity had in Paradise through a double tasting was undone by the need experienced in this world.
Though legally refuted, the devil tried another attack through a command. Taking Him to the pinnacle of the temple, he said, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command His angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone'" (Psalm 91:11-12) — hiding a lie in Scripture. The passage spoke of what God commanded His angels concerning the Messiah; it said nothing about throwing Himself down. That was the devil's own persuasion. The Lord legally confounded him: "It is also written: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test," showing what befits a man — that a man must not tempt God. In the man He appeared to be, He did not tempt the Lord His God. The serpent's pride was undone by the humility in this Man; the devil was already twice defeated by Scripture, exposed as one who counsels contrary to God's command and shows himself God's enemy.
Greatly confounded, the devil gathered himself and marshaled all his power into a lie, showing Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. As Luke records, he said: "I will give You all these, for they have been delivered to me, and I give them to whomever I wish, if You will fall down and worship me." The Lord answered: "Go, Satan! For it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." By that name He unmasked him and revealed who He Himself was — for "Satan" is a Hebrew word meaning "the apostate." Conquering him a third time, He drove him away as one legally defeated. The transgression of God's command that began in Adam was resolved through the command of the Law which the Son of Man kept without transgressing God's command.
Who, then, is the Lord God to whom Christ bears witness — whom no one shall tempt, whom all must adore and serve alone? Without doubt He is the One who gave the Law, God Himself. These things were foretold in the Law, and by the Law's testimony the Lord showed that the Law announces the Word of the Lord from the Father, while the apostate angel of God is destroyed by His voice, overthrown, and conquered by the Son of Man keeping God's command. Because the devil first persuaded man to transgress the Creator's command, he held man in his power — and his power is transgression and apostasy, by which he bound humanity. It was necessary that he be conquered again through a man, bound with the very chains he used to bind man, so that freed humanity might return to its Lord, leaving behind those chains of transgression. The devil's binding became man's liberation, for no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. Therefore the Lord, overthrowing him and subjecting him by the command — the command of God being the Law — showed him to be a fugitive, a transgressor of the Law, and an apostate of God. Then the Word firmly bound him as His own fugitive and plundered his goods — the men he held captive and used unjustly. The one who had unjustly led man captive was justly led captive; the man who had been led captive was rescued from the possessor's power by the mercy of God the Father, who pitied His creation and gave it salvation through the Word, that is, through Christ, restoring it — so that humanity might learn by experience that it receives incorruptibility not from itself but from the gift of God. The true Lord and the one God is declared by the Law and manifested by the Gospel through Christ His Son: Him alone we must adore, and from Him alone expect all good, not from Satan.
Latin
Omnta ergo recapitulans recapitulatus est, et adversus inimicum nostrum bellum provocans, et elidens eum qui, in initio in Adam captivos duxerat nos, et caleans ejus caput, quemadmodum habes in Genesi dixisse serpenti Deum: Et inimicitiam ponam inter te et inter mulierem, et inter semen tuum et semen ejus: tpse tuum lobservabit caput, et tu observabis ejus calcanewm, Ex eo enim qui ex muliere Virgine habebat nasci secundum similitudinem Adam, preeconabatur observans caput serpentis, id est semen, de quo ait Apostolus in epistola que est ad Galatas: Legem + factorum s positam, donec veniret semen cui promissum est. Manifestius autem adhue in eadem ostendit epistola, sic dicens: Cum autem venit plenitudo temporis, misit Deus Filium suum, factum de muliere. Neque enim juste victus fuisset inimicus, nisi ex muliere homo esset, qui vicit eum. Per mulierem enim homini dominatus est ab initio, semetipsum contrarium statuens homini. Propter hoc et Dominus semetipsum Filium Hominis confitetur, principalem hominem illum, ex quo ea que secundum mulierem est plasmatio facta est, in semetipsum recapitulans: uti quemadmodum per hominem victum descendit in mortem genus nostrum, sic iterum per victorem ascendamus in vitam. Et quemadmodum accepit palmam mors per hominem adversus nos, sic iterum nos adversus mortem per hominem accipiamus palmam. 2. Non autem Dominus antiquam illam et primam adversus serpentem inimicitiam in semetipso recapitulatus fuisset, adimplens promissionem Demiurgi, et perficiens preeceptum ejus, si ab alio venisset patre. Sed quoniam unus et idem est, qui ab initio plasmavit nos, et in fine Filium suum misit, preeceptum ejus perfecit Dominus, factus ex muliere, et destruens adversarium nostrum, et perficiens hominem secundum imaginem et similitudinem Et propter hoc non aliunde eum destruxit, nisi ex dictionibus Legis, et Patris preecepto adjutore usus ad destructionem et traductionem apostate angeli. Primo quidem diebus xu. jejunans, similiter ut Moyses et Helias, postea esuriit, ut hominem verum et firmum intelligamus: proprium enim est hominis, jejunantem esurire: deinde autem, ut haberet adversarius ubi congrederetur. Quoniam enim in principio per escam, non esurientem hominem seduxit transgredi preeceptum Dei, in fine esurientem non potuit dissuadere, eam que a Deo esset, sustinere escam. enim eo, et dicente: Si jilius Dei es, dic ut lapides isti panes fant; Dominus autem per preeceptum Legis repulit eum, dicens: Scriptum est, Non in pane tantum vivit homo. Ad illud quidem quod ait, Si filius Dei es, tacuit: exceecayit autem eum hominis confessione, et per paternam dictionem primum ejus impetum evacuavit. Que ergo fuit in Paradiso repletio hominis per duplicem gustationem, dissoluta est per eam, que fuit in hoe mundo, indigentiam. Ille autem legaliter explosus, tentabat et ipse per mandatum rursus legitime facere congressionem. In altissimum enim templi pinnaculum ducens eum, dixit: Si jilius Dei es, mitte te deorsum. Scriptum est enim: Quoniam Angelis swis Deus mandavit de te, et in manibus tollent te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem twum, mendacium abscondens per Scripturam, quod Illud enim, quod Angelis suis mandavit de eo, scriptum erat; Mitte te autem deorsum, * de eo nulla dicebat sed a semetipso hane suasionem Diabolus afferebat. Dominus itaque legitime confutavit eum, dicens: Item seriptum in Lege ostendens id Yuidem quod est secundum hominem, quoniam non debet homo tentare Deum; quantum autem ad illum, in eo homine qui videbatur, non tentaret Dominum Deum suum. Elatio itaque sensus que fuit in serpente, dissoluta est per eam que fuit in homine humilitas: et bis jam victus erat de Scriptura Diabolus, cum est traductus, contraria preecepto Dei suadens, et secundum sententiam suam Dei hostis ostensus. Qui magne confutatus, et quasi semetipsum colligens, universam quam habebat virtutem in mendacium ordinans, tertio ostendit e seculi regna omnia, et gloriam ipsorum, dicens, quemadmodum meminit Lucas: Hee omnia tibi dabo, quoniam mihi tradita sunt, et cui volo do ea, si procidens adoraveris me. Dominus itaque eum qui esset: Vade, inquit, Satana; seriptum est Senim: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies. Denudans eum per hoe nomen, et se ostendens qui erat. Satana enim verbum Hebraicum, Apostatam significat. Et tertio itaque vincens eum, in reliquum repulit a semetipso quasi legitime vicet soluta est ea que fuerat in Adam preecepti Dei preevaricatio, per preeceptum legis, quod servavit Filius hominis non transgrediens preeceptum Dei. 8. Quis ergo Dominus Deus, cui Christus testimonium perhibet; quem nemo tentabit, et quem omnes adorare oportet, et soli servire? Omnimodo ille est sine dubio, qui et Legem dedit Deus. Heee enim in Lege preedicta fuerant, et per Legis sententiam ostendit Dominus, quoniam Lex quidem a Patre Verbum Domini annuntiat : apostata autem Dei angelus )per illius destruitur vocem, traductus Nquis esset, et victus a Filio hominis servante Dei preeceptum. Quoniam enim in initio homini suasit transgredi preceptum factoris, ideo eum habuit in sua potestate; potestas autem ejus est transgressio et apostasia, et his colligavit hominem ; per hominem ipsum iterum oportebat victum eum contrario colligari iisdem vinculis, quibus alligavit hominem, ut homo solutus revertatur ad suum Dominum, illa vincula relinquens, per }quze ipse fuerat alligatus, id est transgressionem. Illius enim colligatio, solutio facta est hominis, quoniam non potest ali> quis introire in domum fortis, et vasa ejus diripere, nisi primum ipsum fortem alligaverit. Contraria ergo in sermone ejus, qui omnia fecit Dei, traducens eum Dominus, et subjiciens per preeceptum, preeceptum autem Dei, lex; fugitivum eum Homo ejus et legis transgressorem, et apostatam Dei ostendens, postea jam ®Verbum constanter eum colligavit, quasi suum fugitivum, et diripuit ejus vasa, id est, eos qui ab eo detinebantur homines, quibus ipse injuste utebatur. Et captivus quidem ductus est juste is qui hominem injuste captivum duxerat; qui autem ante captivus ductus fuerat homo, extractus est a possessoris potestate, secundum misericordiam Dei Patris: qui miseratus est plasmati suo, et dedit salutem ei, per Verbum, id est per Christum redintegrans: ut experimento discat homo, quoniam non a semetipso, sed donatione Dei accipit incorruptelam. Dominus verus, et Deus unus a lege declaratur, et Evangelio per Christum ejus Filium manifestatur : quem solum adorare, et ab illo omnia bona exspectare oportet, non a Satana.