Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 1.2
What you will learn
- Retell the story of Genesis 3 and note what the text itself emphasizes.
- Explain how Romans 5:12-21 reads the story of Adam in light of Christ.
- Identify how rarely the rest of the Old Testament refers back to Genesis 3.
- Distinguish what Scripture states about the fall from what later doctrine adds.
The big idea
Genesis 3 tells how the first man and woman disobeyed God and were driven from the garden. Romans 5 reads that story as the entry of sin and death into the world through one man, set against the righteousness of one man, Christ. Christians agree that these texts describe a real catastrophe at the head of human history. They disagree on how literally to read Genesis, and on how Paul’s words about Adam should be translated and applied. This lesson stays with the texts before turning to the doctrines built on them.
Key terms
- The fall
- The traditional name for the first disobedience of Adam and Eve and the loss of their original condition.
- Sin
- In the Bible, any failure to love God and neighbor, whether in act, word, thought or neglect. Scripture uses many words for it, including missing the mark, rebellion and lawlessness.
- Federal headship
- A Reformed term for the view that Adam acted as the representative head of humanity, so that his act counts for all, as Christ’s act counts for his people.
- Typology
- Reading a person or event in the Bible as a pattern that finds its fulfillment later. Paul calls Adam ‘a figure of him that was to come’ (Romans 5:14).
- Etiology
- A story that explains the origin of something, such as pain in childbirth or the enmity between humans and serpents.
- Concupiscence
- A Latin-derived word for disordered desire, the inclination to sin that remains even after baptism, according to Catholic teaching.
- Death (physical and spiritual)
- In Genesis 2:17 and Romans 5, death may mean bodily death, separation from God, or both. Interpreters differ on how the two are connected.
Background
The doctrine of sin does not begin with a definition. It begins with a story. In Genesis 2 God places the man in a garden, gives him freedom to eat from every tree but one, and warns that on the day he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he shall surely die. Genesis 3 tells what happened next. This lesson reads that chapter closely, then turns to the most important New Testament commentary on it, Romans 5:12-21.
Two cautions set the tone. First, Christians read Genesis in different ways. Some take it as a plain account of two historical individuals. Others see a historical event told in symbolic language. Others see a story that teaches the universal human condition without claiming a particular first pair. These views exist inside every large tradition, though they are not equally common in each. Second, the churches’ formal doctrines of the fall were developed after the Bible, in the course of controversy. The aim here is to separate what the texts say from what the doctrines add.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The story in Genesis 3
The serpent asks the woman whether God really said not to eat from any tree of the garden. She answers with the command, and he contradicts it: “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). The woman sees that the tree is good for food, pleasant to the eyes and desirable to make one wise. She eats and gives to her husband, who is with her, and he eats.
The result is shame, hiding and blame. The man blames the woman and, in a sense, God (“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me”), and the woman blames the serpent. God pronounces consequences: enmity between the serpent and the woman’s offspring, pain in childbirth, struggle with the ground, and return to dust. They are expelled from the garden, and access to the tree of life is barred.
Step 2: What the text emphasizes
The text never uses the word sin in the chapter, and it does not name the act as rebellion in so many words. It tells instead of a distrust of God’s word, a grasping after what God had withheld, and a rupture in every relationship: with God, between the man and woman, with the creatures and with the earth.
Notice also the promise in Genesis 3:15 that the woman’s offspring will bruise the serpent’s head. Many Christian writers from Irenaeus onward have read this as a first hint of Christ. Others, including many modern scholars, read it as a general statement of the struggle between humanity and evil that the New Testament later takes up. Both readings are old and well attested.
Step 3: The quiet afterlife of the story in the Old Testament
Scholars often point out that the Old Testament seldom refers to Adam’s sin again. The prophets denounce the sins of Israel, not the sin of the first man. Some Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, such as 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, do look back to Adam. They disagree about how far his act affects others. In 4 Ezra the writer blames Adam for an evil heart passed on, while 2 Baruch says each person is his own Adam.
This matters because Paul inherits a tradition that already debated the question. He did not invent the discussion, but he gave it a new center in Christ.
Step 4: Romans 5:12-21
Paul writes in Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” He then sets Adam beside Christ. Through the trespass of the one, many died. Through the obedience of the one, many are made righteous. He calls Adam “the figure of him that was to come” (5:14).
Interpreters agree that the passage links Adam, sin and death, and that its main point is the superabundance of grace in Christ (“where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” 5:20). They disagree about the middle of verse 12. The Greek phrase eph’ hō, rendered “for that” in the KJV, can be read in several ways. The Latin Vulgate translated it in a way that Augustine took to mean ‘in whom all sinned,’ which supported the Western doctrine of inherited guilt. Many modern translators and most Eastern writers read it as ‘because’ all sinned, which stresses the spread of death and personal responsibility. This single phrase is at the root of a long debate, and the next two lessons follow it.
Step 5: Other texts
Paul returns to Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” He also says that Eve was deceived (2 Corinthians 11:3) and speaks of the creation subjected to futility (Romans 8:20). Psalm 51:5 (“in sin did my mother conceive me”) and Job 14:4 are often cited in the doctrine of inherited sin. Many interpreters hold that these verses speak of the sinfulness of the human condition in general, not of a transmitted guilt. Others see them as evidence for it.
- What does the serpent actually question: God’s command, God’s goodness, or both?
- Why might the author have shown the man and woman blaming others after the act?
- How does the promise in Genesis 3:15 change the way the chapter ends?
- What does Paul seem most interested in saying in Romans 5: that Adam sinned, or that Christ’s grace is greater?
- How would reading Genesis 3 as symbolic story differ from reading it as plain history in the way a person understands sin?
- Which parts of the doctrine of the fall can be read straight from the texts, and which are conclusions drawn later?
Examples
A translation problem
A student compares three translations of Romans 5:12. One reads ‘because all sinned’, another ‘in whom all sinned’, and a third keeps the Greek ambiguity in a footnote. She notes that the earliest Greek commentators, who read the text in its own language, generally take the phrase in the first sense. She does not yet decide which is correct but sees why the question mattered so much to later writers.
Two readings of Genesis
A pastor teaching a class says that her church reads Genesis 3 as a historical account of the first humans. A member of the same class, from another denomination, says his church treats the chapter as a true story about the human condition whose details are not literal. Both affirm that sin is universal and that Christ is the remedy. The class can compare their reasons without ending their fellowship. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catechism teaches that the account of the fall uses figurative language but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of humanity. It reads Romans 5 as teaching that through Adam’s sin all human beings are affected, and that Christ’s grace is greater.
Orthodox
Orthodox writers read Genesis 3 as the true beginning of humanity’s alienation from God and the entry of death. They stress that Adam was created to grow toward God and chose otherwise. They generally read Romans 5:12 as saying that death spread and all sinned, without teaching inherited guilt.
Lutheran and Reformed
Lutheran and Reformed confessions read Genesis 3 as the historical account of the fall of the first parents, and Romans 5 as teaching that Adam’s sin is reckoned to all his descendants. Reformed writers describe Adam as the covenant or federal head of humanity.
Arminian and Wesleyan
Arminius and Wesley affirmed that Adam’s sin brought corruption and death upon all. They taught that in Christ the guilt is removed for all through grace, so that no one is condemned simply for Adam’s act. Each person is condemned only for personal rejection of grace.
Scholarly views
Historical-critical scholars generally regard Genesis 1 to 11 as theological narrative shaped by ancient Near Eastern traditions. Some Christian scholars hold that the story is about every person. Others defend a historical Adam. The debate is active and cannot be settled by textual study alone.
Why it matters
The doctrines of sin and grace are only as sound as their reading of these texts. A student who understands the story, the Old Testament silence about it, and the translation question in Romans 5:12 can see why Christians reached different conclusions without reading any tradition as careless. It also protects against two errors: treating later doctrine as if it were stated in Genesis, and treating Genesis 3 as having no bearing on the doctrine of sin.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Genesis 3 says that the fruit was an apple.
Correction: The text names only ‘the fruit of the tree.’ The apple comes from later tradition, partly from a Latin pun, since the same word can mean ‘evil’ and ‘apple.’
Misunderstanding: Genesis 3 teaches that sex is the first sin.
Correction: Nothing in the text says so. Genesis 1:28 commands the couple to be fruitful. The sin in the story is distrust and disobedience.
Misunderstanding: The serpent is identified as Satan in Genesis 3.
Correction: Genesis calls the creature a serpent. The identification with Satan appears in later Jewish and Christian tradition, with some support in Wisdom 2:24 and Revelation 12:9. Many Christians accept it, but it is an interpretation.
Misunderstanding: Romans 5 settles the doctrine of original sin by itself.
Correction: Romans 5 is central, but the churches disagree about how to translate and apply verse 12. That is why the later doctrine was developed in debate.
Knowledge check
What are the main stages of the story in Genesis 3?
The serpent questions God’s command, the woman and then the man eat the fruit, shame and hiding follow, and God confronts them. Each blames another. God pronounces consequences, promises enmity between the serpent and the woman’s offspring, and sends them out of the garden. The story is about distrust, disobedience and broken relationships.
What is Paul’s main point in Romans 5:12-21?
Paul sets Adam and Christ side by side. Through one man sin and death spread to all, and through one man righteousness and life come to many. His emphasis falls on the greater power of grace: where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. The passage is a statement about Christ as much as about Adam.
Why does the phrase ‘for that all have sinned’ in Romans 5:12 matter?
The Greek phrase can be read in more than one way. A Latin rendering led Augustine to teach that all sinned in Adam, which supports inherited guilt. Many modern translators and Eastern writers read it as ‘because all sinned,’ stressing the spread of death and personal sin. The choice shapes the doctrine of original sin.
How often does the Old Testament refer back to Adam’s sin, and why does that matter?
Very seldom. The prophets and psalms speak of Israel’s sin, not of the first transgression. Some later Jewish writings do reflect on Adam and disagree about its effects. This shows that Paul inherited a debate. It also warns that later doctrine cannot be read directly from the Old Testament.
Think it through
- Which details of Genesis 3 do you remember from popular retellings that are not in the text?
- How would you explain to a friend why Christians differ on how to read Genesis without differing on the reality of sin?
- Paul’s emphasis falls on the greater power of grace. How does that change the way you read the story of the fall?
Independent assignment
A close reading of Genesis 3 and Romans 5
In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Read Genesis 3 and Romans 5:12-21 slowly. List in two columns what each text states plainly and what you were previously assuming. Then compare two translations of Romans 5:12 and write a short paragraph describing the difference. Finish with three questions you would want answered before deciding what the passage teaches about inherited sin.
Further study
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God Read Book 14 on the first sin and its consequences.
- Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies See how Irenaeus reads Adam and Christ together.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the section on the fall for the Catholic reading of Genesis 3.
- Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith Read the chapter on the fall of man, of sin and of the punishment thereof.
- Genesis 3:15 The enmity between the serpent and the woman’s offspring.
- Romans 5:12 Sin and death through one man.
- 1 Corinthians 15:22 As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.
- Psalm 51:5 Often cited in the debate on inherited sin.