Redemption denied -- National Organization for Women at UH

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Date Posted: 20:26:47 12/06/04 Mon
Author: David
Subject: Redemption denied

Essentially, Original sin is the doctrine, shared in one form or another by most Christian churches, that the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden changed or damaged human nature, such that all human beings since then are innately predisposed to sin, and are powerless to overcome this predisposition without divine intervention. There are wide-ranging disagreements among Christian groups as to the exact understanding of this doctrine, and some Christian groups deny it altogether.

Original sin in Judaism

Classical Biblical and Orthodox Judaism view

The concept of original sin is probably derived from the episode in the Book of Genesis and is known as the Chet HaRishon (in Hebrew) (the "First Sin of Adam and Eve). According to the account in Genesis 1-3, Adam and Eve lived in a state of intimate fellowship with God, and enjoyed a perfect harmony with one another and with nature. They were, however, forbidden by God to eat of the fruit of "the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil."

God first warns Adam:

God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and watch it. God gave the man a commandment, saying, 'You may definitely eat from every tree of the garden. But from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, do not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you will definitely die'. (Genesis 2:15-17) [1] (<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=2)">http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=2)</a>
The serpent persuaded Adam and Eve to disobey this commandment and they felt newly-shamed by their nakedness:

The serpent was the most cunning of all the wild beasts that God had made. [The serpent] asked the woman, 'Did God really say that you may not eat from any of the trees of the garden?' The woman replied to the serpent, 'We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'Do not eat it, and do not [even] touch it, or else you will die.' The serpent said to the woman, 'You will certainly not die! Really, God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and desirable to the eyes, and that the tree was attractive as a means to gain intelligence. She took some of its fruit and ate [it]. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate [it]. The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:1-7) [2] (<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=3)">http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=3)</a>
God is shocked and outraged by what they did and curses the serpent:

God called to the man, and He said, 'Where are you [trying to hide]?' 'I heard Your voice in the garden,' replied [the man], 'and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' [God] asked, 'Who told you that you are naked? Did you eat from the tree which I commanded you not to eat?' The man replied, 'The woman that you gave to be with me - she gave me what I ate from the tree.' God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?' The woman replied, 'The serpent seduced me and I ate [it].' God said to the serpent, 'Because you did this, cursed are you more than all the livestock and all the wild beasts. On your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat, all the days of your life. I will plant hatred between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike you in the head, and you will strike him in the heel. (Genesis 3:9-15) [3] (<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=3)">http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=3)</a>
This led to several dire consequences, including the loss of intimate fellowship with God, man's susceptibility to physical death, a distortion of the relationship between the man and the woman, and the loss of man's harmonious relationship with nature. God curses both Adam (reprenting "Mankind") and Eve (representing "Womankind") and by implication their future descendants and expels them from the Garden of Eden:

To the woman He said, 'I will greatly increase your anguish and your pregnancy. It will be with anguish that you will give birth to children. Your passion will be to your husband, and he will dominate you.' To Adam He said, 'You listened to your wife, and ate from the tree regarding which I specifically gave you orders, saying, 'Do not eat from it.' The ground will therefore be cursed because of you. You will derive food from it with anguish all the days of your life. It will bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread. Finally you will return to the ground, for it was from [the ground] that you were taken. You are dust, and to dust you shall return.' The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all life. God made leather garments for Adam and his wife and He clothed them. God said, 'Man has now become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now he must be prevented from putting forth his hand and also taking from the Tree of Life. He [can] eat it and live forever!' God banished [man] from the Garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove away the man, and stationed the cherubim at the east of Eden, along with the revolving sword blade, to guard the path of the Tree of Life. (Genesis 3:16-24) [4] (<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=3)">http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=3)</a>
All these consequences changed the world and were 'inherited' by Adam and Eve's descendents. However, people are not sinful by default, but all of history is a struggle to bring humanity back to the level Adam and Eve were on before they ate from the Tree of Knowledge. Growing into the role God planned for humanity required leaving Eden as an atonement for that act of disobeying God's command. The sin of Adam and Eve was the disobeying of God's command not to eat of the fruit.

It is important to note that according to this tradition, Adam and Eve should have lived forever had they not sinned by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. When God warned Adam that he would die should he (Adam) eat from the Tree "God gave the man a commandment, saying, 'You may definitely eat from every tree of the garden. But from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, do not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you will definitely die'" (Genesis 2:16-17) [5] (<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=2)">http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=2)</a> the first "casualty" of this curse was their son Cain who mudered Abel:

God said to Cain, 'Why are you so furious? Why are you depressed? If you do good, will there not be special privilege? And if you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door. It lusts after you, but you can dominate it.' Cain said [something] to his brother Abel. Then, when they happened to be in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. God asked Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' 'I do not know,' replied [Cain]. 'Am I my brother's keeper?' God said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is screaming to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground that opened its mouth to take your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer give you of its strength. You will be restless and isolated in the world. (Genesis 4:7-12) [6] (<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=4)">http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=4)</a>
Jewish tradition views the serpent as evil incarnate, probably the Satan ("accuser" in Hebrew).

Original sin in The New Testament

The New Testament teaching on original sin is briefly summarized by the Apostle Paul, who wrote: "Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned." (Rom 5:12 NRSV).

The experience of original sin, and the spiritual pain it produces in the one who wishes to please God, is dramatically summed up by Paul in the following verses: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:15-24)

The solution to this dilemma is stated by Paul in these terms: "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4)

Though the New Testament doctrine of original sin is most clearly expressed by Paul, it is also implicit in the teachings of Jesus: for example in such words as: "And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." (Mark 10:18) and "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5).

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