And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
So, too, we must believe that Adam transgressed the law of God, not because he was deceived into believing that the lie was true but because in obedience to a social compulsion he yielded to Eve, as husband to wife, as the only man in the world to the only woman. It was not without reason that the apostle wrote, “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived.” He means, no doubt, that Eve accepted the serpent’s word as true, whereas Adam refused to be separated from his partner even in a union of sin. This does not imply that he was on that account any less guilty, since he sinned knowingly and deliberately. .
And the fact too that this grace was revealed by means of a woman agrees with the interpretation that we have given. For since, as the apostle tells us, “the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression,” and was by her disobedience foremost in the revolt from God, for this reason she is the first witness of the resurrection. This is so that she might retrieve by her faith in the resurrection the overthrow caused by her disobedience. Indeed, by making herself at the beginning a minister and advocate to her husband of the counsels of the serpent, she brought into human life the beginning of evil and its train of consequences. Therefore, by ministering to his disciples the words of him who slew the rebel dragon, she might become to men the guide of faith, whereby with good reason the first proclamation of death is annulled.
