Bede, on Gen 1:29

“And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat:”

“And God said: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all the trees which have in themselves the seed of their own kind, to be your food, and to all the beasts of the earth and every bird, and to all that move upon the earth, and in which there is a living soul, that you may have them to eat: It is now clear that before man's guilt the earth produced nothing harmful, no poisonous herb, no sterile tree, since it was clearly said that every herb and all trees were given to men and the birds, and to all the beasts of the earth for food, it is evident that even the birds did not live by snatching weak wings, nor did the wolf plot ambushes around the folds, nor was dust the snake's bread, but all ate in concord the green herbs and the fruits of the trees. Certainly among these must arise the question of how man was made immortal above other creatures, and nevertheless received common earthly nourishment with them. In which we must see that there is one kind of immortality of the flesh which we received in Adam's first state, and another which we hope to receive in the resurrection through Christ. Thus, he was made immortal in such a way that he could not die if he did not sin; but if he did sin, he would die. Thus the children of the resurrection will be immortal, when they will be equal to the angels of God, so that they will neither die anymore, nor be able to sin. Therefore our flesh after the resurrection will need no nourishment of food, as it will not be subject to deficiency from hunger, or weariness, or any other kind of weakness. But Adam's flesh before sin was created immortal in such a way that, helped by the supports of temporal nourishment, it existed free from death and pain, until, having been brought to that age which pleased the Creator through bodily growths; then having created much progeny of this kind, by the command of God, it would also partake of the tree of life, from which becoming perfectly immortal, it would no longer need the sustenance of bodily food. Thus, therefore, the flesh of the first humans is created immortal and incorruptible, so that they might retain the same immortality and incorruptibility through obedience to God's commandments; among which commandments was also this, that they should eat of the allowed trees of paradise, but refrain from the consumption of the forbidden one, preserving the gifts of immortality granted to them by the consumption of these, and in the touch of that find the ruin of death. Thus indeed our flesh will be incorruptible and immortal at the end; so that, like angelic splendour, it may remain always in the same state, unable to need bodily foods, since in the spiritual life there will be no need of them. For the fact that angels are read to have eaten with the patriarchs was done not out of need but out of kindness, so that by doing these things they might more sweetly adapt to the men to whom they appeared. The Lord also after the resurrection ate with the disciples, not because he needed nourishment but to show that he had indeed received true flesh after death.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.