From the Garden to the Towers 09-13-2021
1. According to Genesis, the original harmony of creation was disturbed by the one creature
capable, through freedom, of undoing the order God had created out of chaos.
2. In the garden, God gave the first man and woman free reign, with one modest limit.
3. Immediately, they deceive themselves and also try to deceive God, making excuses and pointing
the finger of blame to one another.
4. In one stroke, the man and the woman are at odds with each other, with the natural world, and
with God.
5. Having tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they know what they have done.
6. They are suddenly painfully conscious of their nakedness, which now fills them with shame.
7. The account of the first humans’ disobedience (Genesis3) has provided Western art, literature,
and philosophy with enduring images and themes.
8. The serpent, which has over the centuries often become associated with the personification of
evil known as the Devil or Satan.
9. It is pictured as a dragon or a hideous demon with a human face.
10. The forbidden fruit is usually portrayed as an apple.
11. The idea of forbidden fruit has had a long association with illicit sexual desire.
12. According to the text the first human act of disobedience had powerful consequences.
13. All the ills from which the earthly Paradise had been exempt- toil, pain, aging, conflict,
corruption, and loss-were now realities.
14. Some Jewish interpretations see moral choice for humans as a step down from a state of
innocence, where nobody is tempted to do evil.
15. Others see in this narrative an affirmation of the importance of free will, of the capacity to
choose between good and evil.
16. Christian tradition reads Genesis 3 as the story of “the fall”.
17. Human beings’ fall from God’s presence and favor (or grace) into suffering and sin.
18. Adam and eve’s disobedience is often called original sin.
19. Adam and Eve’s disobedience brought physical and emotional suffering, moral evil, and death
into the world.