Did the Church Fathers teach that the devil tempted Adam before Eve?
A viewer relays that Father Ripperger said the devil tempted Adam first and Adam refused, according to the Fathers of the Church, and asks Robert's view.
Answer
With all due respect to Father Ripperger, whom I love, I would have to disagree, because I have never come across a Father who says that. And even if you found two or three, that is not a consensus. The Fathers were not inspired; they worked from what was handed down from the apostolic oral tradition and synthesized it as best they could, so before you say 'the Fathers say,' you need a dozen or two dozen saying the same thing. On geocentrism you do have that consensus, because every Father who addressed it defended a motionless earth in the middle, even against the Pythagorean heliocentrists. But this idea that Adam resisted first and then Eve fell does not even make sense, because the very next verse says 'and Adam also ate.' Eve gave it to him and he ate. He cannot resist at one point and then lose all sensibility when Eve is tempted. So on that one I would have to say no.