1. Created for incorruption

 

“For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.” 
Wisdom of Solomon 2:23

At the start, Jewish and Christian theology asserts that man is created, therefore mortal with a contingent existence.  Being contingent our life hangs upon, literally de pends on, God.  Philosophically only the monotheistic faiths acknowledge this logical truth.

The word used in the Septuagint is αφθαρσια, aphtharsia.  No  corruptible  or perishing.  God, as the Source of all, alone is immortal, and so the Apostle blesses God,

15 He is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
Life then is union with Him. His Life is immortality. Incorruption. Death then is the separation from Him.

“For with You is the fountain of light and in Your light we shall see light” 
Separate from the fountain of life and we experience death.  This is how we thus explain the Fall of man:  Adam separated from life and the decay inevitably set into the human nature and. The grace which infused it was departed and we are thus rightly said to be “deprived of the grace of God.”

Immortality then does not completely convey the idea.  Not changing would be a more round sense of the word.  Thus, in saying we are created to be immortal, it is saying we are meant to be like Jesus, as Paul said “Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today and forever.” Hebrews 13,8.

We are created to be like Him- incorruptible, not changing.  The next part of the verse explains for us how we are to be incorruptible, what this consists of.  Note that Solomon said we are made to be an image of His own eternity.

ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἔκτισεν τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐπʼ ἀφθαρσίᾳ

Because God made man for incorruption

καὶ εἰκόνα τῆς ἰδίας ἀϊδιότητος ἐποίησεν αὐτόν·

And an image, icon, of His own eternity, aidiotis.

We reflect His own life and eternity.  What does this life consist of?

“In Him was life and the life was the light of men.”

“God dwells in light Unapproachable”

“He was the true light which lightens every man who comes into the world”

“For God who commanded the light to shine in darkness has shined in our hearts the light of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.”

The light is the ray of the Sun of righteousness, Who dwelt in Adam’s heart.  Adam then reflected that light back,  hence he was an image of that glory.

Adam was created to not change; to be the same as God is, that is,  to dwell in His eternal light, which is His love. That is incorruption, as we will see it developed more fully in Saint John’s gospel.