Abstract:
The original sin occurred in the Adam and Eve narrative in the book of Genesis, which led to the downfall of humanity. The book of Genesis teaches that the nature of sin is related to the unbelief in God’s commands and promises, and human pride. It also teaches that sin affects all dimensions of one’s relationship, with oneself, with God, with each other, and with the rest of the creation, and physical death will come as an inevitable consequence to all. Furthermore sin spreads like wildfire and has a tendency to become more severe as it spread from a personal to a community level. God’s judgment always accompanies sin, although the severity of punishment can vary from mitigation to undifferentiated punishment on all. In Genesis 1-11, God regularly remedied sin through judgment. Then, after God’s covenant with Noah we see a greater mercy in the patriarchal narratives which demonstrated even more clearly that a line of ‘seeds’ traced throughout Genesis concluding with Judah will be the channel of God’s blessings to all nations on earth.
Ever since the original sin of Adam and Eve, humanity had gone in a downward spiral. How can such a seemingly harmless act of eating a fruit create such a horrific impact? This essay examines the topic of sin through the book of Genesis, first defining what it teaches about the nature of sin, then discussing the consequences of sin, and explore into the remedy of sin.
To define sin, let us first review what happened in ‘The Fall’ of Adam and Eve. Man was placed in the Garden of Eden with a specific prohibition addressed to him by God in Gen 2:17, which was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One day, the snake tempted Eve into doubting God’s commands. Eve, who did not hear the command firsthand as she was not created yet when God gave the command to Adam, was seduced into adding a prohibition against even touching the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then the snake led the woman to doubt the benevolence and reasonableness of the command with a lie that she will not certainly die. So, having doubted the boundaries of God's commands, she went on to doubt whether the threatened consequences of disobedience will really come to pass[1]. Then the snake tempted her that she will ‘be like God’ if she eats from it. This was the final straw! A piece of fruit, the seemingly inconsequential object of temptation, became the source of the ruin of the world. However, similar things still happen in modern days, for example an AIDS-infected drug addict may have fallen just once for the sales pitch, ‘Try it; you'll like it!’ But having tried it, it does not matter whether or not he liked it; the act generates its own consequences.
Then we look at Genesis 4, where Cain killed Abel out of jealousy and anger when God looked upon Abel’s offering with favour but not his. The injury of Cain’s pride seemed to the issue in this narrative. We could also see that sin was already ‘crouching at his door’ even before the murderous act. Moving on to Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel was another account of mankind’s desire to make a name for themselves and ‘be like God’ in their attempt to build a tower that reaches the heavens. Then from the narrative of the patriarchs, more sins happened as a result of unbelief, some of the examples included Sarah taking things into her own hand because of her unbelief of God’s promise that the covenant child will be born through her (Genesis 16), Abraham passing off Sarah as his sister because he did not have faith in God’s protection (Gen 12:13; 20:12), and Rebecca assisting Jacob in deceptions to get the birthright (Genesis 27) when she already knew it was promised to him (Gen 25:23). And murderous desires springing from jealousy and injury to pride in Esau wanting to kill Jacob and Joseph’s brothers wanting to kill him. Sometimes sin resulted from seemingly insignificant choices, but unbelief in God’s commands and promises, and human pride appear to be the nature of sin in the Genesis account, and of our ongoing struggle[2].
Next, we move on to analyse the consequences of sin using various narratives in Genesis such as The Fall, Cain, Sons of God, the Great Flood, and the Tower of Babel. From ‘The Fall’ alone, we could already see in Gen 3:7 the consequences of sin happened in a rapid-fire fashion, where their eyes open, they realised their nakedness, sew fig leaves, and make coverings for themselves[3]. There was an immediate sense of self-consciousness and embarrassment and there was disturbance in the relationship of the man and woman with themselves as they viewed their bodies as objects of self-loathing and embarrassment[4]. However, the man and woman were still breathing, walking and talking, so it appeared that the death was something other than physical death[5]. What began to unfold was an inner death where there is the death of peace with God. The relationship went from a free and open relationship between the Maker and his creature to a sudden discovery of the need for ‘privacy’ and a fear of God[6]. Then Adam and Eve refused to acknowledge their wrongs and tried to find ways of shifting the responsibility. Adam accused God that it was ‘the woman you put here with me’ that led him to eat it[7]. Then the woman took on the role of victimization, saying it was the snake that deceived her[8]. There is also the death of relational peace where we see the loss of peace between the man and the woman. The man is to ‘rule’ over the woman, and the man does not give what she desires[9]. Even up to modern days, we still see this friction and power struggle going on, ‘the battle of the sexes’. There is also the death of peace with creation, or loss of creational peace, where man has to work through painful toil to survive (Gen 3:17-19). Finally, physical death will still come in the end, as ‘dust you are and dust you shall return’.
Then, sins became increasingly severe, going from disobedience to murder in the Cain narrative. It also spread from individuals sinning to communities sinning, and further increased in severity from reckless killing, to titanic lust, to total corruption and violence, to the full disruption of humanity[10]. God’s acts of judgment were always related to a particular sin, and punishment became increasingly more severe with the increasing spread of sin. The general pattern seemed to be a movement from human sin to divine punishment to divine forgiveness or mitigation of the punishment[11]. On an individual who sin, as in ‘The Fall’ and Cain, God’s dealing could be highly personalised, where they were punished for their sin but were partly relieved of the severity of their punishment, as Adam and Eve did not die immediately and God had put a mark of protection on Cain when driving him out. But where a whole community’s relationship with God was involved, the operation of justice in punishment can sometimes be undifferentiated, as in the ‘Sons of God’ episode, where all humanity’s life-span became shortened because of the sins of the ‘Sons of God’. When the vast majorities sinned and were punished as in the Flood narrative, there was the near annihilation of mankind with mitigation taking effect only for one man and his family. In the Tower of Babel, all of those who have sinned were punished with ‘dissolution of mankind’s unity’ and there was no direct mitigation[12].
Humanity was doomed as a result of sin, but God did not destroy humanity. In fact, we catch a glimpse of what could be God’s remedy of sin in Gen 3:15, where the woman’s offspring will crush the head of the serpent. This particular verse is quite controversial[13] and could be interpreted differently by different scholars[14]. It is interesting that the very instrument Satan used to bring ruin to humankind is going to be the very means God uses to bring ruin to the serpent[15], liberating humanity from the consequences of sin[16]. Alexander[17] pointed out that although there is no direct mention of Christ in Genesis, we see the theme of ‘the seed of woman’ throughout as the channel of blessings to all nations, with the Hebrew term ‘seed’ occurring at unusually high frequency in Genesis. The theme of the ‘seed’ cannot be overlooked as there seem to be a central genealogical lineage being traced through male descendants and successive members are always clearly indicated. The members began with Adam, included Noah and Abraham whom God made eternal covenants with, and ended with Judah. The members of this lineage enjoyed an exceptionally close relationship with God and a large measure of God’s favour and blessing[18]. Through the lineage we also see two types of seeds: the righteous and unrighteous seed. The righteous seed enjoyed a positive relationship with God and experienced his blessing, whereas the unrighteous seeds distanced themselves from God by their evil actions and, as a consequence, experienced God’s displeasure. The ongoing conflict between the righteous an unrighteous seed is most clearly illustrated in the narrative of ‘Cain and Abel' (Gen 4:1-16)[19]. We also see the importance of obedience in God’s eyes through the Flood narrative, which repeatedly emphasised that Noah, who was righteous, blameless, and walked faithfully with God, “did all that the Lord commanded him” (Gen 6:22; 7:5)[20].
Initially, God regularly remedied sins throughout Genesis 1-11 through judgment[21]. However, after God’s covenant with Noah, we move on the narratives of the patriarchs, where the indication that divine mercy will triumph over the consequences of the fall became clearer, as the divine promises associated with Abraham’s call, where God will bless all the peoples of the earth through Abraham (Gen 12:1-3), revealed that he is to play a central role in restoring humanity’s broken relationship with God[22]. By obedience and faith, Abraham set out on his journey from Harran to the land of Canaan (Gen 12:4-5), despite the land already been occupied by someone else (Gen 12:6) and his wife Sarah being barren (11:30)[23]. We subsequently see that Abraham was far from perfect in character[24] and initially had struggles in his faith, where at one point he abandoned the Promised Land in face of a severe famine and traveled down to Egypt (Gen 12:10-20), and placed both himself and his family in grave peril by passing off Sarah as his sister[25], and went along with Sarah’s request of using taking the slave girl Hagar to produce a surrogate heir. Eventually, Abraham’s faith and obedience grew to the point where he obeyed God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis 22, and through this account God’s covenant with Abraham was restated again whereby the divine promises of blessings coming through Abraham’s ‘seed’ to all nations on earth[26].
We see more examples of disobedient imperfect lives transformed and blessed by God conditional on their obedience in other parts of the patriarchal narrative[27]. For example, the deceptive Jacob still firmly believed in God’s promise of blessing the nations through his descendants (Gen 28:14) and obeyed God’s command for him to returned to the Promised Land (Gen 31:3) despite his fear of Laban and Esau. We also see major transformations in Judah and Joseph, where Judah went from conspirator and self-willed parent to unselfish spokesman for the family, and Joseph went from spoiled child and slave to the family’s magnanimous savior[28]. What both of these characters had in common was both came to a point in their lives where they recognised divine action previously hidden from their eyes[29], where Judah recognised of God’s strange and previously hidden activity in propagating the family in Tamar’s bizarre deeds (Gen 38:26), and Joseph recognised that it was God who sent him to Egypt before his brothers in order to save their lives (Gen 45:7-8). Both of them received the longest blessings[30] from Jacob, with Judah being told ‘Your father’s sons will bow down to you’ (Gen 49:8) and the scepter and ruler’s staff not departing from Judah (Gen 49:10). Furthermore the narrator put particular emphasis on Judah’s line of ‘seed’, which suggested that the king who will arise in the future from the tribe of Judah is linked to the line of ‘seed’ traced throughout the book of Genesis[31].
From Genesis, we can see the nature of sin appears to be unbelief in God’s commands and promises, and human pride. As a consequence of sin, there is disruption of relationships on all levels. On a personal level one views their bodies as objects of self-loathing and embarrassment. There is a loss of peace with God, as well relational peace and creational peace. Finally, physical death will still come in the end. The spread of sin occurs in a rapid fire fashion with increasing severity. God’s judgments are always related to a particular sin, although punishment may vary from mitigation to undifferentiated punishment. Through Genesis characters well known for their obedience and faith such as Noah and Abraham, we can see that these qualities are the remedy of sin as they were both seen as righteous in the eyes of God because of their faith. We see a change in God’s remedy for sin going from judgment with forgiveness largely absent in Genesis 1-11 to a greater level of mercy in the patriarchal narratives, where the theme of a line of seeds arising from Eve that will crush the head of the serpent and become a channel of blessings to all nations on earth become even clearer. We can also see hope even in the imperfect characters whose lives became greatly transformed and blessed by God when they recognized divine action previously hidden from their eyes, as in the case of Judah.
Bibliography:
Alexander, T.D. “Messianic Ideology in the book of Genesis”, In The Lord’s Anointed: Interpretation of Old Testament Messianic Texts, edited by P.E. Satterthwaite, R.S. Hess and G.J. Wenham, Carlisle: Paternoster, 1995.
Alexander, T.D. From Paradise to the Promise Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2002.
Alexander, T.D. From Eden to the New Jerusalem: Exploring God’s plan for life on earth. Nottingham: IVP, 2008.
Andrews, James A. “On original sin and the scandalous nature of existence”, Journal of Theological Interpretation, 5(2011): 231-250.
Boda, M. J. A Severe Mercy: Sin and Its Remedy in the Old Testament. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2009.
Campbell, Iain D. The Doctrine of Sin, Ross-Shire: Christian Focus Publications, 1999.
Clifford, R.J. “Genesis 38: Its Contribution to the Jacob Story”, CBQ 66 (2004): 519-532.
Clines, D. J. A. The Theme of the Pentateuch. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1997.
Davidson, Richard M. “The Genesis flood narrative: crucial issues in the current debate”, Andrews University Seminary Studies, 42(2004): 49-77.
DeBorst, Ruth Padilla. “God's earth and God's people: relationships restored”,
Journal of Latin American Theology, 5(2010): 6-17.
Goldingay, J. “The Patriarchs in Scripture and History.” In Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, edited by A.R. Millard and C.J. Wiseman, Leicaster: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980.
Lewis, Jack P. “The woman's seed (Gen 3:15)”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 34(1991): 299-319.
Longacre, R.E. “Joseph.” In Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch, edited by T.D. Alexander and David W. Baker, Downers Grove: IVP, 2003.
Luter, A.B. and Klouda, S.L. “Issac.” In Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch, edited by T.D. Alexander and David W. Baker, Downers Grove: IVP, 2003.
Mathews, K. A. Genesis 1-11:26. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1996.
Poythress, Vern S. “The presence of God qualifying our notions of grammatical-historical interpretation: Genesis 3:15 as a test case”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 50(2007): 87-103.
Rigsby, R.O. “Jacob.” In Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch, edited by T.D. Alexander and David W. Baker, Downers Grove: IVP, 2003.
Shuster, Marguerite. “The Mystery of Original Sin”, Christianity Today, 57(2013): 38-41.
Tinker, M. Reclaiming Genesis. Oxford: Monarch Books, 2010.
Wenham, G.J. Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1-11. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1994.
Williamson, P.R. “Abraham.” In Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch, edited by T.D. Alexander and David W. Baker, Downers Grove: IVP, 2003.
[1] Marguerite Shuster, “The Mystery of Original Sin”, Christianity Today, 57(2013): 40.
[2] Shuster, “Mystery of Original Sin”, 41.
[3] K. A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1996), 239.
[4] Iain D. Campbell, The Doctrine of Sin, (Ross-Shire: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 25.
[5] M. Tinker, Reclaiming Genesis, (Oxford: Monarch Books, 2010), 100.
[6] Tinker, Reclaiming Genesis, 101.
[7] Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, 241.
[8] Tinker, Reclaiming Genesis, 103.
[9] Tinker, Reclaiming Genesis, 106.
[10] D. J. A. Clines, The Theme of the Pentateuch, (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1997), 70.
[11] Clines, The Theme of the Pentateuch, 66-67
[12] Clines, The Theme of the Pentateuch, 68-70
[13] Vern S. Poythress, “The presence of God qualifying our notions of grammatical-historical interpretation: Genesis 3:15 as a test case”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2007 (50), 96.Perhaps in Gen 3:15 Adam and Ee saw only an explanation for the age-long human fear of serpents and a promise of continued domination over them. Nothing in the immediate context forces us to see in this verse anything other than an observation about literal serpents and their literal offspring
[14] Lewis, Jack P. “The woman's seed (Gen 3:15)”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 34(1991): 317-318. Dillmann found the verse speaking of continued enmity between snakes and men with the second half of the verse merely depicting differing modes of contest in keeping with the nature of each. Briggs commented that "the seed of the woman embraces the human race as such, that is, all who take part in the conflicts of the race with the forces of evil," but then he spoke of an individual victor, the representative of the race. Keil and Delitzsch saw the whole human race in the conflict. Dillmann and Driver derived the idea of hope in the passage from the effectiveness of the curse of God on the serpent. Skinner explained Gen 3:15 as speaking of "the whole brood of serpents and the whole race of men." He said, "It is doubtful if, from the standpoint of strict historical exegesis, the passage can be regarded as in any sense a Protoevangelium."
[15] Tinker, Reclaiming Genesis, 112.
[16] Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, 248.
[17] T.D. Alexander, “Messianic Ideology in the book of Genesis”, In The Lord’s Anointed: Interpretation of Old Testament Messianic Texts, edited by P.E. Satterthwaite, R.S. Hess and G.J. Wenham, (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1995), 22.
[18] Alexander, “Messianic Ideology”, 23.
[19] Alexander, “Messianic Ideology”, 24.
[20] Ruth Padilla DeBorst, “God's earth and God's people: relationships restored”, Journal of Latin American Theology, 5(2010): 9.
[21] M.J. Boda, A Severe Mercy: Sin and Its Remedy in the Old Testament, (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2009), 32.
[22] T.D. Alexander, From Paradise to the Promise Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2002.
[23] J. Goldingay, “The Patriarchs in Scripture and History.” In Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, edited by A.R. Millard and C.J. Wiseman, (Leicaster: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980), 13.
[24] Boda, A Severe Mercy, 27.
[25] P.R. Williamson, “Abraham.” In Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch, edited by T.D. Alexander and David W. Baker, (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003), 9.
[26] Alexander, “Messianic Ideology”, 22.
[27] Alexander, From Paradise to the Promise Land, 152.
[28] R. J. Clifford, “Genesis 38: Its Contribution to the Jacob Story”, CBQ 66 (2004): 528.
[29] Clifford, “Genesis 38”, 530.
[30] Alexander, “Messianic Ideology”, 33.
[31] Alexander, “Messianic Ideology”, 36.
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