Adam is every man
When he says that “the story of Moses most impiously brings in God as weak straight away, from the very beginning, and unable to persuade even one man whom he himself had formed,” to this too we shall say that the charge is like a complaint against the existence of wickedness, which God has not been able to prevent even in a single man, so that at least one man might be found who from the beginning had never tasted wickedness. For just as those who care to defend providence make their defence on this point with arguments neither few nor contemptible, so too those will philosophize about Adam and his sin who know that the name Adam, in Greek, is “man,” and that in what seems to be about Adam, Moses is giving an account of the nature of man.
For “in Adam,” as the word says, “all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22), and they were condemned “in the likeness of Adam’s transgression” (Romans 5:14), the divine word saying these things not so much of one particular man as of the whole race. Indeed, in the sequence of what is said as though of one man, the curse of Adam is common to all (Genesis 3:17–19); and as for what is said against the woman, there is no woman of whom it is not said (Genesis 3:16). And the man who is cast out of paradise with the woman (Genesis 3:23–24), clothed in the “garments of skins” (Genesis 3:21) which, because of the transgression of humankind, God made for those who had sinned, holds a secret and mystical meaning, beyond the descent of the soul as Plato tells it, which sheds its wings and is carried down here “until it lays hold of something solid” (Plato, Phaedrus 246c).
Greek
Ἐπὰν δὲ φάσκῃ ὡς ἄρα ἀνοσιώτατα τὸν θεὸν, εὐθὺς καὶ ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ἀσθενοῦντα καὶ μηδ᾿ ἕνα ἄνθρωπον, ὃν αὐτὸς ἔπλασε. πεῖσαι δυνάμενον. εἰσήγαγεν ὁ Μωϋσέως λόγος, καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο φήσομεν ὅτι ὅμοιόν ἐστι τὸ λεγόμενον, ὡς εἴ τις ἐνεκάλει ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς κακίας συστάσει, ἣν οὐδὲ ἀπὸ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου δεδύνηται κωλῦσαι ὁ θεὸς, ὥστε κἂν ἕνα τινὰ ἄνθρωπον εὑρεθῆναι ἀρχῆθεν ἄγευστον κακίας γεγενημένον. ὡς γὰρ περὶ τούτου οἷς μέλει ἀπολογεῖσθαι περὶ προνοίας ἀπολογοῦνται οὐ δι᾿ ὀλίγων οὐδὲ δι᾿ εὐκαταφρονήτων, οὕτω δὲ καὶ περὶ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ καὶ περὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας αὐτοῦ φιλοσοφήσουσιν οἱ ἐγνωκότες ὅτι καθ᾿ Ἑλλάδα φωνὴν ὁ Ἀδὰμ ἄνθρωπός ἐστι, καὶ ἐν τοῖς δοκοῦσι περὶ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ εἶναι φυσιολογεῖ Μωϋσῆς τὰ περὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσεως. καὶ „γὰρ ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ,“ ὥς φησιν ὁ λόγος, „πάντες ἀποθνῄσκουσι,“ καὶ κατεδικάσθησαν ἐν „τῷ ὁμοιώματι τῆς παραβάσεως Ἀδὰμ,“ οὐχ οὕτως περὶ ἑνός τινος ὡς περὶ ὅλου τοῦ γένους ταῦτα φάσκοντος τοῦ θείου λόγου. καὶ γὰρ ἐν τῇ τῶν λεγομένων ὡς περὶ ἑνὸς ἀκολουθίᾳ ἡ ἀρὰ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ κοινὴ πάντων ἐστί· καὶ τὰ κατὰ τῆς γυναικὸς οὐκ ἔστι καθ᾿ ἧς οὐ λέγεται. καὶ ὁ ἐκβαλλόμενος δὲ ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου ἄνθρωπος μετὰ τῆς γυναικὸς, τοὺς „δερματίνους“ ἠμφιεσμένος „χιτῶνας,“ οὓς διὰ τὴν παράβασιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐποίησε τοῖς ἁμαρτήσασιν ὁ θεὸς, ἀπόῤῥητόν τινα καὶ μυστικὸν ἔχει λόγον, ὑπὲρ τὴν κατὰ Πλάτωνα κάθ (οδ) ον τῆς ψυχῆς, πτεροῤῥυούσης καὶ δεῦρο φερομένης, „ἕως ἂν στερεοῦ τινος λάβηται.“