Genesis 3 and the Origin of the Term "Fall"

The Exile of Adam and Eve

By John Sanidopoulos

In the book The Story of Original Sin by John Toews (2013), we read:

'The interpretation of Genesis 3 as a "fall" reflects a much later Christian understanding which has been read back into the text; the term “the fall” was first used with certainty to describe the sin of Adam by the Greek church father Methodius of Olympus, late third or early fourth century (d. 311), as a reaction to Origen’s teaching of a pre-natal fall in the transcendent world. In other words, a "fall" theology about the interpretation of Genesis 3 begins to develope about six to eight centuries after the probable writing of the original Genesis 3 story in a totally different setting and for a totally different purpose (many more centuries later if Genesis 3 is dated to the tenth century BCE). Why is it profoundly significant that this much later Christian and Greek “fall” construal is not stated or even suggested in the text? Because that means the story of salvation history, which is a fairly normative interpretive framework for a Christian reading the whole Bible does not begin with “the fall.” Rather, it begins with broken relationships and exile, which is a very Jewish way of reading the text. And lest we forget, it was Jewish people who wrote this text originally for Jewish people, probably for Jewish people living in exile trying to understand the profound tragedy of the destruction of their country, the Temple, many of their fellow countrymen, and their exile in Babylon. The re-definition of the story of Genesis 3 as a "fall" represented a much later Hellenistic-Gentile re-interpretation of the text.

On Reading the Story of Adam and Eve

By Fr. John Breck

Someone asked the other day how we should read Genesis 2-3, the story of Adam and Eve. Behind his question lay troubled concern over the apparent conflict between science and Scripture. “If we take the biblical account seriously,” he concluded, “then we have to reject evolutionary theory altogether and align ourselves with those ‘creationists’ who believe the Genesis account is to be taken literally, as an actual biological description of the way human life came to be.”

There are two closely intertwined issues here: the meaning of the Genesis account, and God’s role in the process of creation. To address either one, it is necessary first of all to untangle and separate them. Here we will try to speak to the first question; then in a future column we will turn briefly to the debate over evolution and creationism.

Synaxarion for the Sunday of Cheesefare

By Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos

SUNDAY of CHEESEFARE

On the same day, we commemorate the banishment of Adam, the First-formed man, from the Paradise of delight.

Verses

Let the world lament bitterly with our first ancestors,
For it fell together with those who fell by a sweet repast.


Synaxarion

Our Holy Fathers appointed this commemoration before the Holy Fast, as if to show in actual fact how beneficial the medicine of fasting is to human nature, and also how great is the shame of gluttony and disobedience. Passing over all the individual sins committed in the world on account of him, as being without number, the Fathers set forth how much evil Adam, the first-formed man, suffered from not fasting even for a brief time, and how much evil he thereby brought upon our race, clearly pointing out also that the virtue of fasting was the first commandment that God gave to mankind. Not keeping this commandment, but yielding to his belly, or rather, through Eve, to the deceitful serpent, Adam not only did not become God, but also incurred death and transmitted corruption to the whole human race.

St. Seraphim of Sarov on Adam in Paradise

Below is an excerpt from St. Seraphim of Sarov's conversation with Nicholas Motovilov that explains the purpose of the Christian life as being the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. To make his point, St. Seraphim gives a brief overview of the history of Holy Scripture to show that this purpose for mankind existed from the beginning, with Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. By explaining that man was initially created just like all animals is significant, because what distinguishes mankind from the animals is that mankind has been given the gift of the grace of God to keep us immortal and make us gods. This is the essential key to the theological interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis, and all of Holy Scripture in general, as well as the sacramental and ascetic life of the Church.

Fr. John Romanides on the Creation of the World and Man (3 of 6)

...continued from part two.

The Creation of Man

"Now it was necessary that man should in the first instance be created; and having been created, should grow; and having grown, should reach maturity; and having reached maturity, should multiply; and having multiplied, should be strengthened; and having been strengthened, should be glorified; and being glorified, should see his Lord. For it is God Who is going to be seen, and the vision of God procures immortality." (St. Irenaeus of Lyons)

"By this arrangement, therefore, and this rhythm, and this course, man, a created and formed being, comes to be in the image and likeness of the uncreated God: the Father being well-pleased and giving His command; the Son carrying it out and creating; and the Spirit nourishing and increasing; and man gradually making progress, and ascending towards perfection. that is, drawing near to the uncreated One. For He Who is uncreated is perfect, Who is God." (St. Irenaeus of Lyons)