The understanding that Adam and Eve were once clothed in light before their fall is not only confirmed by the ancient Jews but also hinted at by the ancient Christians in what they have to say concerning the celestial bodies that are awaiting the believer. Church Father Arnobius, in his work Against Heathens writes in the notes the following about what believers have to look forward to:
But let us not reason from things terrestrial as regards things celestial: our coarse material fabrics are “shadows of the true.” The robes of light are realities, and are conformed to spiritual bodies, as even here a mist may envelop a tree. [vi]
Methodius, another church father says the following concerning the light that we shall be clothed with. He derives his comments from Isaiah 60 which speaks of the future messianic kingdom in which Israel will be in the center. He envisions what a body completely free from sin and corruption will be like. He writes:
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. […] It is the Church whose children shall come to her with all speed after the resurrection, running to her from all quarters. She rejoices receiving the light which never goes down, and clothed with the brightness of the Word as with a robe. For with what other more precious or honourable ornament was it becoming that the queen should be adorned, to be led as a Bride to the Lord, when she had received a garment of light, and therefore was called by the Father? Come, then, let us go forward in our discourse, and look upon this marvelous woman as upon virgins prepared for a marriage, pure and undefiled, perfect and radiating a permanent beauty, wanting nothing of the brightness of light; and instead of a dress, clothed with light itself; and instead of precious stones, her head adorned with shining stars. For instead of the clothing which we have, she had light; and for gold and brilliant stones, she had stars; but stars not such as those which are set in the invisible heaven, but better and more resplendent, so that those may rather be considered as their images and likenesses, (emphasis mine). [vii]
The second century Christian document, the Revelation of Peter, written after 135 AD affords us a wonderful commentary as to what undoubtedly many Christians believed had happened and would come to pass. Again, we do not look at such texts as inspired of God, but as early Christian commentary on the Scriptures. Concerning the resurrected believers, the text states:
There appeared two men standing before the Lord […] upon whom we were not able to look. For there issued from their countenance a ray as of the sun, and their raiment was shining so as the eye of man never saw the like: for no mouth is able to declare nor heart to conceive the glory wherewith they were clad and the beauty of their countenance. Whom when we saw we were astonished, for their bodies were whiter than any snow and redder than any rose. And the redness of them was mingled with the whiteness, and, in a word, I am not able to declare their beauty. […]These are your (our) righteous brethren whose appearance ye did desire to see. […] the dwellers in that place were clad with the raiment of shining angels, and their raiment was like unto their land, (emphasis mine). [viii]
Note that the writer of this document believed that the resurrected saints would literally emit light from their bodies just as we have seen from numerous Scriptures. The writer identifies the two saints as Moses and Elias (Elijah). He also sees the shining analogous to the colors of a rainbow just like the colors that surround God in Ezekiel 1:28.
‘The Son at his coming will raise the dead . . . and will make my righteous ones shine seven times more than the sun, and will make their crowns shine like crystal and like the rainbow in the time of rain (crowns) which are perfumed with nard and cannot be contemplated (adorned) with rubies, with the colour of emeralds shining brightly, with topazes, gems, and yellow pearls that shine like the stars of heaven, and like the rays of the sun, sparkling which cannot be gazed upon.’ Again, of the angels: ‘ Their faces shine more than the sun; their crowns are as the rainbow in the time of rain. […] Their eyes shine like the morning star. […] Their raiment is not woven, but white as that of the fuller, according as I saw on the mountain where Moses and Elias were. [ix]
There seems to be little doubt that the early Church interpreted the resurrected bodies of the believers to be such that they would emit light and shine like the sun. Given that Jesus came as the second Adam and that we are in the corrupted image of the first Adam, we can infer that when God made the first Adam (in an uncorrupted state), that Adam must have radiated light in a manner similar to our resurrection bodies.
