Fall of man
[1] Unlike Christianity, the other major Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam, do not have a concept of "original sin", and instead have developed varying other interpretations of the Eden narrative.
[1] The serpent tempted Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree, which she shared with Adam, and they immediately became ashamed of their nakedness.
The Book of Jubilees, an apocryphal Jewish work written during the Second Temple period, gives time frames for the events that led to the fall of man by stating that the serpent convinced Eve to eat the fruit on the 17th day, of the 2nd month, in the 8th year after Adam's creation (3:17).
[17]: 19–20 According to the Genesis narrative, during the antediluvian age, human longevity approached a millennium, such as the case of Adam who lived 930 years.
[19][20] The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms [...] that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.
These negated or diminished the gifts of God to Adam and Eve of original justice or sanctifying grace, integrity, immortality and infused knowledge.
But being in honour, he understood it not, neither knew his excellency, but wilfully subjected himself to sin, and consequently to death, and the curse, giving ear to the words of the devil.
[28]By the inverse to the concept of imputed righteousness, Adam, as the federal head of humanity, brought condemnation and death to all by his violation of the commandment to life.
"[17]: 21 In saying that, as a result of the Fall, man has become "wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all his ways," the Confession expresses the doctrine of total depravity, which means that man is completely helpless and unable to rescue himself from sin, and "cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 15:50) but must be rescued by the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who is from heaven, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
"[28]: 9–10 Indeed, Genesis 3:15 ("And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel"), known as the protevangelium, is interpreted as a gracious declaration of the Covenant of Grace, in which God effects reconciliation with humanity and vanquishes the devil through Christ's Atonement, which delivers from sin.
This concept of a meta-historical fall (also called metaphysical, supramundane, or atemporal) has been most recently expounded by the Orthodox theologians David Bentley Hart, John Behr, and Sergei Bulgakov, but it has roots in the writings of several early church fathers, especially Origen and Maximus the Confessor.
[37] In the subordination exegesis of the Fall, the natural consequences of sin entering the human race were prophesied by God to Eve in Genesis 3:16: the husband "will rule over you".
This interpretation is reinforced by comments in the First Epistle to Timothy, where the author gives a rationale for directing that a woman (NIV: possibly "wife"): ...should learn in quietness and full submission.
They maintain that judgmental comments against women in reference to Eve are a "dangerous interpretation, in terms both of biblical theology and of the call to Christian commitment".
With that transition, humans no longer dwelled idyllically in a parkland, feeding on wild fruits or animals, but had begun the toilsome cultivation of cereals.
[1][47][48][49] In Gnosticism, the biblical serpent in the Garden of Eden was praised and thanked for bringing knowledge (gnosis) to Adam and Eve and thereby freeing them from the malevolent Demiurge's control.
[1][48][47][51] In the Archontic, Sethian, and Ophite systems, Yaldabaoth (Yahweh) is regarded as the malevolent Demiurge and false god of the Old Testament who generated the material universe and keeps the souls trapped in physical bodies, imprisoned in the world full of pain and suffering that he created.
Unlike Iblīs (al-Shayṭān), Adam asked for forgiveness for his transgression, despite God being the ultimate cause of his Fall.
Some Muslim scholars view Adam as an image for his descendants: humans sin, become aware of it, repent for their transgressions (tawba), and return to God.
[67] In William Shakespeare's Henry V (1599), the King describes the betrayal of Lord Scroop – a friend since childhood – as being "like another fall of man", referring to the loss of his own faith and innocence the treason has caused.
In the novel Perelandra (1943) by C. S. Lewis, the theme of the fall is explored in the context of a new Garden of Eden with a new, green-skinned Adam and Eve on the planet Venus, and with the protagonist – the Cambridge scholar Dr.
Confessing to an acquaintance, the protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Clamence, describes the haunting consequence of his refusal to rescue a woman who had jumped from a bridge to her death.
J. R. R. Tolkien included as a note to his comments about the Dialogue of Finrod and Andreth (published posthumously in 1993) the Tale of Adanel that is a reimagining of the fall of man inside his Middle-earth's mythos.
The story presented Melkor seducing the first Men by making them worship him instead of Eru Ilúvatar, leading to the loss of the "Edenic" condition of the human race.
In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series (1995, 1997, 2000), the fall is presented in a positive light, as it is the moment at which human beings achieve self-awareness, knowledge, and freedom.
Lucas van Leyden, a Dutch engraver and painter during the Renaissance period, created several different woodcuts featuring Adam and Eve (two were part of his Power of Women series).
