Adam's Sin

Before we consider [URL=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=1&chapter=3&version=31]Genesis 3[/URL], in which the story of the Fall is related it is probably worthwhile to note that we are looking at a myth. Myth, as I'm using it here, isn't something false; it is a literary genre closely related to parables and fables, and is a (generally) non-historical, non-allegorical story through which some complicated point is expressed. Because of the genre in which Genesis 3 falls, it is important to pay close attention to what things are called and to the reasons for which things happen in the story.

Turning now to [URL=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=1&chapter=2&version=31]Genesis 2[/URL], for the background of the Fall, we find that Adam and Eve have been created and placed in a garden that contains the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Right here we should pause to note that the names of these trees indicate that they are not normal trees. They are actually physical manifestations of knowledge and eternal life; two things humans have tried to possess for millennia.

Turning, then, to Genesis 3 we find Eve and the serpent talking and the serpent points out that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil isn't poisonous or fatal to touch, nor is its fruit; it gives knowledge of Good and Evil, which makes a person like God. When Eve examines the tree she finds that the serpent is correct about its nature and decides that she would like to be wise. As a result she eats and has Adam eat as well, and the serpent is again proven correct; Adam and Eve have knowledge as demonstrated by their realization that they're naked. Then God shows up, questions Adam, Eve, and the serpent, and then hands out punishment to the serpent, Eve, and Adam. The story closes with God giving Adam and Eve something like real clothes and then driving them out of the garden to keep them from eating of the Tree of Life, because it would have made them immortal.

So what was Adam's sin in the story? The simplistic answer is that Adam and Eve were disobedient; they ate what they'd been told not to eat and sinned in that way. That interpretation strikes me as being simplistic because it doesn't consider why the trees in the story are "the Knowledge of Good and Evil" and "Life." The trees wouldn't have names if they weren't important to the point of the story. It also doesn't pay any attention to why they ate. Looking back at the conversation between Eve and the serpent we see that the ability of the tree of Knowledge to make a person like God was pointed out by serpent, and a significant point in Eve's examination of the tree was that eating its fruit would make a person wise, which is a repetition in a different key of the tree's ability to make a person God-like. The concern about Adam and Eve becoming like God is reiterated a third time verse 22 by God in connection with eating from the tree of Life. This triple connection between Adam's sin and being God-like suggests that being God-like is much closer to the center of Adam's sin then simple disobedience. Humanity, however, is said to be made in God's image in Genesis 1:27, so it seems that we can't simply say that Adam's sin was in wanting to be like God. What does it mean to be like God, however? One of the more striking features is that God isn't dependent on others for wisdom or knowledge or life. This independence is paralleled in Eve's looking to a tree to obtain knowledge. The parallelism both there and with the notion of being immortal by one's own nature, suggests that Adam's sin was precisely in pursuing the chance to be independent of God. Interestingly, this is essentially one of the definitions of sin, that sin is separation from God.

My conclusion is that Adam's sin is essentially that they wanted to be independent of God. What do you think?

Jon