Genesis 2 and 3 contain the account of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, facing the tree of knowledge of good and evil, under the prompting of the serpent. It is a story replete with potential meaning that can have a profound impact on how we view our relationship with God. It is that meaning that we plan to reexamine.

The Fall

Christian tradition interprets Genesis 3 as a Fall from Grace. In this interpretation, Adam and Eve started out perfect, but by their sin they threw everything away. All had been wonderful, yet now they are condemned – condemned to die and banished from the garden.

This view of Genesis was most crisply formulated by St. Augustine around 400CE. So influential was Augustine’s doctrine of The Fall that it has been held by both Catholic and Protestant Christianity ever since, with only minor variation. With such staying power, it almost seems crazy to suggest that this interpretation may not be what was understood by the Biblical writers. However, we will see that there are strong Biblical reasons to come back to Genesis 3 with fresh eyes. To prepare for that, let’s take a moment to review the doctrine of The Fall in more detail.

The Fall doctrine declares that Adam and Eve started out immaculate. Augustine claimed that human beings were in perfect balance prior to their transgression, in complete and total harmony with God. And it was from this exalted state, through one act of sin, that we fell from grace. Human nature changed, and we all now inherit a distorted, sinful, and dying nature.

The doctrine of The Fall doesn’t merely claim that human beings had a physical and spiritual change, it also claims that we had a change of social/legal status before God. As a race, Augustine claimed, we all inherit the guilt of this original sin and are eternally condemned from birth. In ancient cultural terms, the actions of Adam and Eve consigned all their descendants to a despised caste, no longer honored as citizens with rights, but outcasts from generation to generation. Consequently, in the context of the doctrine of The Fall, salvation is only possible if an action occurs to change our social status, to free us from wholesale condemnation. And this is where traditional Christian views of transactional forms of atonement come from. At various stages of Church history the death of Jesus has been understood as an act that buys us back from the devil’s ownership, or that presents homage to God to restore his honor, or that provides a substitute to bear the legal consequences of our sin. All of these transactional theories have serious Biblical problems.¹

There are other problems that arise from the doctrine of The Fall. For example, many people understand the doctrine to mean that prior to Genesis 3 there was no death. Anywhere. But that understanding presents a conundrum. What about animals that are uniquely formed for catching and killing prey? Not just lions, but spiders too – the only purpose for the web is as a trap for flies. Some people have suggested that there was maybe a shift in creation – almost a re-creation of the animal kingdom. Yet the Bible doesn’t give us any such indication.

Secondly, the assumption that Adam and Eve started out perfect comes from the declaration of the creation as Very Good at the end of Day 6. However, if this declaration occurred before the fruit was eaten, then it would have to encompass the serpent too! And moreover, to declare Adam and Eve as Very Good seems premature at the very least, given the tragic events that are about to unfold. Actually, a closer reading of Genesis 2 shows that the account does not follow on from the seven Days of Genesis 1, but instead is a separate narrative. Indeed, when merging the two accounts, it is quite possible that Day 6 encompasses the events of Genesis 2 and 3, especially as Genesis 2 flows smoothly into Genesis 3 with no indication of God pausing to rest.² All of this means that we need to be cautious about drawing strong conclusions from “Very Good”.

Third, the doctrine of The Fall implicates God in a massive blunder. Why on earth did he put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden? He must have had a good idea of what would happen. Or was God deliberately trying to trip them up? Under The Fall interpretation, I have never heard any satisfying explanation for this. It seems inconsistent with God’s love and foreknowledge. It pits God against us – and us against God.

The Fall is not taught in scripture

I grew up believing a version of the doctrine of The Fall, so it was a shock to me when I discovered that the doctrine is not taught in the rest of the Bible. Consider, if we had been perfect as a race – albeit just the two of us – and then suddenly all became condemned, then this would be the greatest tragedy to befall humanity, the single worst thing that has ever happened to the human race. And yet when we look at Scripture, there is almost no commentary on it whatsoever! Nowhere does the Bible explicitly describe the events of Genesis 3 as a tragic loss of innocence.

Let me be clear: there are plenty of Scriptures that describes us as sinful, as dying, and as needing salvation. But no Biblical writer describes Adam and Eve as starting out perfect and then Falling from grace. The Old Testament prophets never mention it. And neither does Jesus. Nor Peter or John. Paul is the only one who makes any references that even come close, and those are surprisingly limited. Romans 5 is the most extensive:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned […] Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. (Rom 5:12, 14)

Notice that even here Paul doesn’t describe this as a Fall from grace. He is clear that sin entered the world through Adam, but other dimensions of The Fall doctrine are just not here. Neither are they in 1 Timothy 2, where he describes Eve as the transgressor. In both passages, something significant is being described, but if this was the moment of the greatest tragedy and loss for the human race, I would have expected Paul to be more clear about it.

The only other relevant reference Paul makes is in 1 Corinthians 15:

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. […] Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1Cor 15:21–22, 45)

This then is the full extent of Paul’s analysis of what’s going on in Eden. Again, I suggest that if we were actually dealing with the greatest tragedy to befall the human race, surely some Biblical writers would have analyzed it in much more detail.

This silence should be a warning to us. The doctrine of The Fall is far less attested to than some of the other traditional Christian doctrines that many have long since understood as being contrary to Scripture. So, at the very least, we should look again at Genesis 3. Are there interpretations other than The Fall that are completely fair to the Genesis account and better attested in the rest of Scripture?

The Awakening

I’m going to give you the spoiler right up front and then we’ll go through the evidence. I have come to understand Genesis 3 to be describing an Awakening of humanity: Eden is where humanity learned of its shortcomings, of its need to truly connect with the divine.

The Genesis account itself uses language that describes new awareness:

Then the eyes of both were opened (Gen 3:7)

Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil….” (Gen 3:22)

I now see these declarations as expressing the primary consequence of their rebellion – their eyes were opened, and they now knew both good and evil. Prior to this, Genesis 2:25 had described Adam and Eve as naked and unashamed. Physically being naked without shame doesn’t seem all that surprising – they were husband and wife after all. But the consistent metaphorical meaning of the word “naked” through scripture is of being spiritually naked. For example, when Jesus writes to the church at Laodicea, he says,

For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked…. (Rev 3:17)

Adam and Eve’s physical nakedness may have been a lived parable of their spiritual nakedness. We will see evidence that, even prior to taking the fruit, Adam and Eve were just like us. They had a susceptibility to temptation, to selfishness, to rebellion against God. But they were ignorant of their situation. They thought they were rich in their communion with God. But actually they had no idea how far they were from being one with the divine spirit. And so God set about waking them up from their stupor.

It is a bold claim that we are making here, that Christianity may have misinterpreted Eden. In this short article, we cannot possibly cover all the evidence, but I hope we will see enough to encourage us to consider Eden as an Awakening rather than The Fall.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil

Let’s start with why God placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden, along with its prohibition. Under the doctrine of The Fall, God’s action was hard to justify. On the other hand, if God’s intent is an Awakening, then we can lean on Paul’s explanation of God’s purpose with Law – noting that Eden was the first law. We start with Romans 7:

What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Rom 7:7)

Apply this principle to Adam and Eve. They are given a law. And through the law, they discover what sin is. They come to know good and evil.

Let’s continue in Romans 7:

But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. (Rom 7:8–11)

Paul is personalizing for himself exactly the same experience Adam and Eve had!

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. (Rom 7:12–13)

This is a profound – profound! – analysis that is directly applicable to Genesis 3. In the presence of law, sin springs to life – think ‘serpent’. And confronted by commandment, sin deceives me. And in transgression, sin is seen to be sin. These are very much Genesis ideas, and yet Paul says they are relevant in his own life. Which means they are relevant for me in my own life as well – it’s when commandment is put in front of me that I realize the potential gulf between me and that which is divine.

In Romans 3, Paul puts it even more succinctly:

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Rom 3:20)

Law, says Paul, is not designed to save. Rather, it is designed to wake us up, to make us conscious of our sin. And that’s exactly what Genesis says Adam and Eve’s act of transgression produced in them. In the presence of law, they became conscious of sin. They gained a knowledge of good and evil. It is not for nothing that the tree itself was called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Now, did Adam and Eve have shortcomings before eating the fruit? Paul indicates that the answer is Yes. Remember his example of coveting? The commandment brought pre-existing attitudes and tendencies to the fore. It made them visible. And similarly, it was through law that Adam and Eve became conscious of the sinful tendencies they already had.

Let’s go back to Romans 5. Previously, I deliberately skipped over verse 13 because it wasn’t helpful to The Fall doctrine. But now consider the more complete passage:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned — sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. (Rom 5:12–14)

Sin was in the world before law was given, Paul says, but it was not reckoned, not understood. It is only when we face law, that we notice our sin. In Paul’s analysis, law demonstrates that which is already present. Law shows us the nature that we have, our natural, human nature. We come to see our shortcomings and our need.

A wake-up call

For alcoholics, admitting the problem is the first step to sobriety. Admission requires the person themself to become aware of their problematic behaviors. It is the same with human selfishness and sin. Adam and Eve needed to know that all was not well with them. So God made a law. Adam and Eve had thought they were all having a great time together. After all, God’s angel of the presence walked with them in the cool of the evening. But God knew that this fellowship was only superficial, so with dire warning he put a tree in the garden. And yet, even with such dreadful consequences, they disobey him and eat of it. And in the eating, they realize the gulf between themselves and God. Their blatant violation of God’s one and only law made the separation clear, and their awareness produced shame.

Romans 7 becomes even more powerful in this light:

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. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Rom 7:15–17)

Again, we can see these words describing Genesis 3. This is what Adam and Eve went through. They experienced sin dwelling in them. And Paul says he experiences it too. In fact, each of us experiences this. And so we come to realize our need before God. And our need isn’t legal restitution. Our need is connection. We need deep and profound harmony with the divine. And we can be rescued from the destructive patterns that are within us, from behaviors that often take place in ignorance. And often it takes difficult times in our lives for us to stop and lift up our eyes. And presumably it would have been the same with Adam and Eve.

In hope

God started his work by allowing Adam and Eve to experience perfection. He walked with them in the paradise garden. He healed their diseases, and continually reversed the effects of mortality – Adam and Eve would have been undying because they had access to the Tree of Life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Rev 22).

Once God had given them time enough to acclimatize to this perfect place, he began showing them who they actually were. He held up a mirror to show them their shortcomings. And Adam and Eve came to realize their spiritual nakedness. Their eyes were opened and they now knew good and evil, just as the angels do. And in that knowing, their path to unity with God could now begin. For this, they had to leave the comfort and safety of the garden and return to live within the reality of life.

And it’s the same with us. The path to salvation requires adversity, because complacency leads to death. So God has subjected his creation to frustration, so that we continue to remember our need for God. As Qohelet, the teacher in Ecclesiastes, muses,

As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. (Eccl 3:18)

and he tests us through the challenges we face in life,

Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? (Eccl 7:13)

And in that context, listen to Paul again,

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Rom 8:18–21)

I used to think that Adam and Eve were banished from the garden as a punishment. But both Qohelet and Paul are saying that God deliberately made things difficult in this world so that we would understand ourselves, so that we would see our need, so that we would open our eyes, again and again. Likewise, Adam and Eve were sent into the groaning of creation in hope – in hope – that they and all of creation would be liberated from their bondage to decay.

Cherubim were placed at the entrance of the paradise garden to guard and protect the way to the Tree of Life. Removing Adam and Eve’s access to the Tree meant that they (and we) could not indefinitely postpone death – death with its irresistible ability to strip us bare of everything we might otherwise try to lean upon. The inexorable march of death leaves us with no alternative but to echo Jesus himself, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46).

And metaphorically and spiritually, the Tree of Life is still there. Still available. Still ours if we are open to the transformation of God. As Jesus says in Revelation,

To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God. (Rev 2:7)

Interestingly, Paradise is the word that Jesus also uses on the cross with the repentant freedom fighter who was being crucified with him. Jesus said, you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). Paradise is our hope, the return to the garden God gave us a taste of, but this time in true fellowship, for God will be all and in all (1Cor 15:28).

Jesus himself enacts a beautiful parable of this pattern. He starts the weekend in the garden of testing, in the presence of God, wrestling with an awful decision regarding the will of God. Such was his turmoil, sweat dropped from him like drops of blood.

Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Heb 5:8–9)

And his testing continued as he left the garden, back into the suffering of the world, and all the way to death. Through it all, the vision of the paradise of God was in front of him,

Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame. (Heb 12:1–2)

In Eden, the serpent had implied that Adam and Eve would need to eat the fruit to gain knowledge of good and evil. But that was another lie. Transgression was not the only way. Jesus shows us that it is the facing of the test that teaches us good and evil. Failure was not required.

God’s eternal compassion

We have only skimmed the surface of all that could be said. We could have noted that Adam and Eve were not cursed after eating the fruit – the serpent was cursed, and the ground was too, but God never curses Adam and Eve directly. We could have looked at the serpent more fully in its role as a metaphor for sin that grows into a mighty dragon beast in Revelation. We could have seen Cain echo many of the same elements as his parents, as he too is driven even further from a good and pleasant land. These threads, and many others like them, will need to be left to your own thoughtful study.

For now, we will close by considering the impact this interpretation can have on how we view our relationship with God. Under The Fall interpretation, God is full of wrath with our whole race. In contrast, The Awakening is a story of the Father’s vision of what we might become, and of his eternal compassion toward his children. To reach their spiritual potential, he knew Adam and Eve needed to be awakened. In his love, God gave them a law so that they would realize the separation they had been ignorant of. Suddenly their eyes were opened. And while they tried physically to cover themselves, they still hid because their poor attempt at covering didn’t reassure them. They were still ashamed, still at a distance. But God reassures them. He provides coverings. He draws them out of hiding, back into his presence. And he sends them back into the real world, to grow in faith and spirit.

And this continues throughout history. God’s love towards us is unabated. He has continually been working with the tribe of Adam, always working to draw us to him, to help us gain the reality of the closeness they glimpsed. God is lifting us up out of the depths we naturally inhabit. He opens our eyes. He calls us forward. And he nurtures and heals us, continuing to transform us. All the time longing for the time when creation no longer needs to be subjected to frustration.

Longing for the time when we may truly be able to share in the paradise of God.

This is the underlying theme of Change us, not God, John Launchbury, ISBN: 978-0982409299 ↩︎
Day 6 may encompass much more – consider Heb 4 for the timing of God’s rest ↩︎