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6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 3:6-7, NRSVUE)
The meta-narrative of mainstream Christianity describes the history of humanity and God's saving work in four parts:
- Creation
- Fall
- Redemption
- Restoration
The creation piece, in which man enters the scene, is generally viewed as a utopian existence in which humanity is perfect and lives in perfect relationships in the physical presence of God. For Christians, things quickly take a turn within the first two chapters of the Bible when we go from utopia with God to THE FALL!
As we see in Genesis 3:6-7 things for humanity take a turn for the worse when Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit after falling for the serpent's (often understood as Satan’s) temptation. The result is God becomes angry, kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden, or paradise, and they are left to figure out life 'east of Eden.' What's worse, according to a large segment of Christians, is this 'original sin' causes all of humanity to fall out of God's grace. I know; things escalated quickly there. Yikes!
As we see in Genesis 3:6-7 things for humanity take a turn for the worse when Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit after falling for the serpent's (often understood as Satan’s) temptation. The result is God becomes angry, kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden, or paradise, and they are left to figure out life 'east of Eden.' What's worse, according to a large segment of Christians, is this 'original sin' causes all of humanity to fall out of God's grace. I know; things escalated quickly there. Yikes!
Within the particular evangelical strand, I come from, there are a few things worth mentioning:
- As good complementarians, we usually blame Eve for initiating temptation. Adam is a passive observer, failing to lead his family (as God designed, of course); thus, when women are left to themselves to make decisions, bad things happen.
- Despite the text never explicitly saying the serpent is Satan, the serpent is the devil.
- The apparent result of this misdeed is all of humanity is now born inherently sinful, in rebellion with God. We are now damned to hell apart from believing in Jesus.
Despite evangelicals' argument that the best hermeneutic is the 'plain and clear reading of the text,' there is nothing in the text about Adam and Eve's Fall into temptation having consequences beyond themselves. SPOILER ALERT: It is unequivocally understood that the concept of 'original sin' did not exist until the third century CE, when the church father, Augustine of Hippo, created it.
Original Sin and the Problem of the Abrahamic Religions
A Conversation with my Jewish Grandmother
Shortly after I became a Christian in my early twenties, my Jewish grandmother became infuriated by the news. She was a woman who never backed away from letting someone know her opinion. She was also a woman of deep passion and conviction. To hear her only grandson become a Christian was deeply troubling for her, and she made sure I knew it.
At the time, I naively saw my grandmother's disapproval of my being a Christian as a type of spiritual testing by God and a form of persecution. Like many evangelicals, I was taught to have a martyr complex and to view every pushback or disagreement about a point of my Christian faith as an 'attack of the enemy' or 'persecution from the world.'
Here I was, a baby Christian, and already I was enduring 'persecution' from my family in the holy cause of Jesus. It's ridiculous, I know, but at the time, I thought my grandmother had become a means to test my faith and trust in Jesus.
While having dinner together at my dad's house one night, my grandma mentioned God. As the good soldier of Christ, I took the opportunity to share the gospel with my grandmother and let her know Jesus was the savior of both Jews and Gentiles. He wanted to save her from her sin as he had with me.
I'll never forget the look on her face when I began word-vomiting about how we are all sinners who cannot be saved apart from the grace of God found in Jesus. As I saw myself valiantly fighting a spiritual war between good and evil, my grandmother looked at me like a crazy person who joined a cult.
After I shared 'the gospel' with Grandma, she looked at me and asked, in a Middle Eastern accent, "What do you mean I need forgiveness for my sin?" Here I was, thinking the gospel was at work, the Holy Spirit was stirring in my grandma's heart, and I was going to save her! I shared how, despite God creating the universe and humanity perfectly, because of the Fall that resulted due to Adam and Eve's disobedience, the only hope for humankind is Jesus.
To my shock, my grandmother wasn't crying as she realized her brokenness and need for a savior. She stared a hole through me and, with a straight face, asked, "What do you mean by the Fall?" Within a few minutes, she showed me how the 'Fall' is purely a Christian creation. Within Judaism, there is no concept of Adam and Eve's Fall into temptation having implications beyond their punishment. Furthermore, it didn't mean all humanity was now fallen because of Adam and Eve's poor choice.
A Conversation with My Muslim Friends
Some years later, as a seminary student, the topic of original sin came back up during my study of Islam. While earning a Master's in Islamic Studies, I was required to read the Quran and learn about Islamic theology.
One of the first differences I learned about was how Christians and Muslims view the Fall in Genesis 3 differently. To get clarification on these differences, I met with a Muslim friend who explained that Islam does not believe in the idea of inherited sin passed down from Adam and Eve to all humanity.
During my conversation, I heard echoes of my Jewish grandmother coming from my Muslim friend. Like my grandmother told me years before, my Muslim friend repeated now that Adam and Eve did disobey God's command in the Garden. But they also repented; God accepted their repentance and forgave them.
Like Judaism, Islam does not see the need for a suffering savior to save humanity from our sins. In both traditions, the concept of original sin does not exist. Within these traditions, the focus is on individual accountability and sin resulting from personal choice, not an inherited condition we can do nothing about.
The Popular and Proper Understanding of Genesis 3
Of the three Abrahamic religions, only Christianity believes in the concept of religious sin. Interestingly, not every sect or denomination within Christianity accepts this concept. For example, the Eastern Orthodox Church does not embrace what it sees as the "Western Church’s" concept of original sin.
The Eastern Orthodox Church aligns with Judaism and Islam in their belief that humanity has a tendency toward sin, though it is not inherited guilt. Furthermore, within Protestantism, some groups also reject the concept of original sin. Those in the Anabaptist tradition also do not believe in this concept.
Though original sin is a popular concept within Catholicism and Protestantism, it may not be the proper understanding of Genesis 3. Seeking to learn from our Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, and Muslim brothers and sisters, let's examine a different perspective of Genesis 3:6-7.
From Original Sin to Original Blessing
Let's start by acknowledging that no view within any Abrahamic tradition believes nothing has gone wrong in the world or within the human condition. In the 1983 book Original Blessing, theologian Matthew Fox advocates for a view of creation and humanity as fundamentally good as God declared in Genesis 1:31;
31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. (NRSVUE)
Like our Jewish, Muslim, Eastern Orthodox, and Anabaptist friends, the concept of original blessing holds that humans are born in a state of goodness and not sin inherited from Adam and Eve. This view also believes that God's initial blessing that everything God made is good is irreversible, unalterable, and untaintable.
Because of this shift from humanity's fallenness to its blessing, we can love and care for all people instead of viewing the 'unsaved' as projects. For many Christians who hold to the concept of original sin, other Christians can be loved and cared for because they've been saved. However, God may love everyone else in one sense, but in a very practical sense, God finds non-Christians dirty, dangerous, depraved (if you're a Calvinist, it's 'totally depraved'), and unacceptable before God. This view leaves Christians in an odd place where every relationship with non-Christians becomes a 'missionary' endeavor to save the lost person's soul.
As a result, people become projects. When a person rejects a conversion attempt, they are cast aside, the concept of their fallen state is emphasized, and the Christian discards them as lost cause. The person is left with guilt and shame for believing they had made a real friend.
Now, suppose we believe God understands the vast majority of humans as all these harmful ideas. In that case, we would treat others like projects and discard them when they refuse to join the team.
Let's contrast this through the lens of original blessing. From the outset, we acknowledge the reality of sin and the human capacity to do unspeakable evil. However, sin and evil are not core to our identities but are secondary to God-given goodness.
Rather than seeing everyone who is not part of our religious tradition as depraved, lost, or in need of saving, we are free to love and care for others with no strings attached. We can better empathize with others because we all tend to fall into webs of destructive behavior.
Adam and Eve's Fall into temptation was a cautionary tale showing how humanity is broken in God's eyes. The story can now take on a redemptive quality.
Like Adam and Eve, we are prone to temptation and to sacrifice trust in God. When we mess up, God doesn't cast us aside. God still recognizes our inherent goodness, loves us, and guides us back to relationships. Like Adam and Eve, our destructive behavior leads to separation and estrangement, but God is always there to bring us back to the path of communion with God, ourselves, and others.
Within the framework of original blessing, God's grace is put on steroids in that God's radical love is always present and available. There are no stipulations, no barriers to overcome, and not even the correct dogma to first believe. What if the purpose of Jesus's life isn't about humanity being so flawed that it's a miracle God would save any of us? Maybe Jesus's life is about God's radical love being so big it's impossible for us to fully comprehend, yet so transformative that it invites us to live in boundless grace and hope.
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