6. Theology of Genesis 3: Fall of Man

 

*DISCLAIMER: I am using the Douay-Rheims versions of the bible if any of you are interested and all the texts posted are from there.

 

Chapter 3 Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?

2 And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.

4 And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death.

5 For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband, who did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons.

8 And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise.

9 And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou?

10 And he said: I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. 11 And he said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?

12 And Adam said: The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the Lord God said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? And she answered: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.

14 And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall cursh thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

16 To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee.

17 And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.

18 Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth.

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.

20 And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living.

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.

22 And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now therefore lest perhaps he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.

23 And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. 24 And he cast out Adam: and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

 

Verses 1-5: In these verses, it is the first time humans have been tempted by the devils who have fallen from grace. As I said in Genesis chapter 1, that darkness was never part of God, but has always been part of creation, shows in the way the serpent speaks. The devil has taken the form of a serpent in this case because it is the most subtle of the beasts of the earth.

We see that the serpent asks a question as if it has no knowledge of the tree of knowledge, but he himself has eaten of this fruit when he and his angels fell from grace. He even asked the question more generally because of this knowledge to convince the woman that he does not know everything. It is important to note, that with knowledge, you can lead someone to thinking what you want them to think and do what you want them to do naturally by asking questions as this serpent did.

With the woman saying that the tree of knowledge is the one tree where the fruit should not be eaten has the serpent responding, “No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” This is extremely important because it gives way to believe that the serpent knows just as much as God does and this is why the woman had fallen to the serpents temptation. She listened to this serpent and to her own desire to become as God rather than to obey the one who created them.

 

Verses 6-13: In these verses the idea of sin becomes manifest by willing to eat the fruit and then actually eating the fruit. The three principle parts of a mortal sin is the temptation, the will and the action. Without all three components there is no serious sin, however, I wish to state that all sins offend God infinitely. Just because a sin does not fall into all three categories, doesn’t mean that you did not offend God. So after husband and wife ate the fruit, they realized their nakedness. I strongly believe that if God allowed them to eat of this fruit, they would have not been ashamed of themselves, but they ate this fruit and realized they did wrong eating the fruit because they have the knowledge of good and evil or right and wrong. By eating this fruit, they knew they did wrong by disobeying God and thus felt their nakedness as shame because of the malice in their hearts. God also walking through paradise asks Adam where he is and Adam still answers honestly. I find this extremely interesting because most people this day and age would try and lie to God and that would make their sin even worse than it is already. So we must all note, that if we are asked a question, it is better to answer honestly, even though it is extremely difficult and you know you will be reprimanded, because you shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Take Adam and Eve for instance, they ate this fruit and now they knew they were going to die the death. If we put ourselves in their shoes they disobeyed God for death and still told God the honest truth regardless of the punishment. We can’t even tell someone something honestly because we are afraid they won’t agree with us. The point I’m getting at is that our malice has grown and we have less excuses than they did yet we still fall. We will now go to see their judgment in the next verses.

 

Verses 14-19: These verses show the first judgment of God on humans and even the serpent as an animal for the devil choosing it. Before I continue onto the actual judgment, we can see how the devil has not only defiled us as humans, but also the earth by taking a good animal God created and made it evil and malicious.

The first judgment goes to the serpent where God tells him that since he has done this temptation that he will be cursed among the beasts of the earth. That he will crawl on his breast and will eat the earth all the days of his life. It is interesting to think that serpents didn’t always crawl on their bellies and also that they are feared among all the animals of earth as predators. The other part is that they do eat the earth because snakes burrow underground for their homes implying that they so-to-speak eat dirt. The next part of the judgment is a prophecy at the same time. The fact that the serpent tempted the woman above the man, God has said that He will put enmities between the serpent and woman and that the serpent will wait for the woman to crush his head with her heel. In essence the woman will conquer the serpent. The prophecy is in accordance with the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. The Virgin Mary is the woman to crush the head of the serpent because she birthed Jesus, our Lord, who has conquered death (namely sin) through His life, passion and resurrection.

The second judgment is on the woman. The first thing God said is that He will multiply the sorrows of woman. In essence the woman will be more sorrowful than man and will suffer more in the end. The first part of this is that women will have to birth children in pain as we all know women do. Another thing to mention is that women have their menstrual cycle which can and usually is extremely painful which is another sorrow attached to women. The last of the judgment on women is that the husband will have dominion over them. I know many women feel that it is unfair to be a woman and that everything is against you and it has always been that way no matter what you do. I am showing you the answer as to why is that. Think of the sin the first woman and mother caused upon her children by being tempted by the serpent. Now this judgment by God is eternal so all women have had to deal with this suffering. What I have to say to you women is that no matter what you do (men and women alike) we cannot escape the judgment of God, so it is best to accept it and strive to become unified with the will of the eternal Father to restore ourselves to perfect grace and not be subject to man or woman or any creature, but only to God. I’m telling you that there is a way out of being under dominion of man and having sorrows during life and that is to become pure again through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I’m not saying the sorrows will disappear, but you won’t see them as sorrows anymore, but as a gift.

The last judgment is for man. God says since we valued creation (wife) more than God, He cursed the earth for our work. It is interesting the way God worded it because it is as if the earth is against our work and that it will never go the right way, but full of chaos and unpredictability. God also says that the life of men will be constant painful work for the rest of our lives. To add onto this painful work, God says it will bring nothing but thorns and thistles and that we will have to eat the herbs of the earth. To finish it off, we are going to have to eat and drink until we return to the dust or slime that we have been made from. We pay for our sins accordingly and another judgment is between man and woman entirely. It is the fact that we don’t understand each other through our differences in suffering and through our malice and sin we committed together, we are separated and cause division between us. Those in marriages who once loved perfectly, now fall to pieces because of this judgment of God. As i have said, the only way to turn this judgment around is to give up our will to Jesus Christ.

It is quite clear that disobeying God results in extremely harsh judgments, so if you ever think your penance is bad in confession, read Genesis 3 to see the penance Adam and Eve had to do.

 

Verses 20-24: We see in these verses that the last creation Adam named is his wife and her name is Eve which means the mother of all the living. Now I wish to stress the words that the Holy Trinity speaks to themselves by saying that man has become like God and that they have to take action before Adam and Eve take of the tree of life and eat so they live forever. This is the essence of the tree of life. If both the tree of knowledge and of life are fused together, they will either give eternal life or eternal death. The first to offer us the tree of life is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He has given us the keys to both eternal life and eternal death depending on your choosing.

God then sent out Adam and Eve from paradise to be the first farmers and parents and guarded paradise with Cherubims and a flaming sword that turned every way to defend the tree of life.