Genesis: Key to the Dogma

If all we have is a vague, fuzzy notion that Adam did something "wrong," then all we will have is a vague, fuzzy notion that Jesus did something "right." The less we examine Adam's fault, the less we will understand the redemption. This is because Jesus came to make satisfaction for the debt Adam incurred by his sin. If we don't fully understand what the debt entailed, we won't fully understand what the reparation entailed, and, in particular, Mary's co-redemption.

Now we know that both Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were both guilty. Yet there was an order to their sin. One of them sinned first. Based on Genesis, we could easily assume it was Eve. After all, she ate the fruit and then gave it to her husband to eat. But later in Scripture the blame for the Fall is placed solely upon Adam. He was the source of death for the whole human race we are told. Therefore, he had to have been the one who, in some sense, sinned first:

As one man's fall brought condemnation on everyone, so the good act of one man brings everyone life and makes them justified. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous (Rom 5:18-19)¹ ... Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ (1 Cor 15:21-22).

What was Adam's sin? The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command" (#397). Scott Hahn, in his book, A Father Who Keeps His Promises, points out that, although Adam was right there in the garden (as indicated by the original Hebrew text), he "opted for silence, a loud and guilty silence." He says: "Adam had to make a dreadful choice. Would he stand up for his bride by engaging the diabolic serpent in mortal combat? Or would he try to cling to his cherished estate in Eden, with its many delights?"² Donna Steichen, in her book, Ungodly Rage, makes a similar point: "Adam chooses to evade the very duties of leadership that Eve covets ... the head of the first family disobeys his Creator and betrays his patriarchal obligations with his eyes wide open."³

While this is helpful, it does not fully explain Adam's sin which tradition holds was due to pride. As John Paul II put it, "The blindness of pride deceived our first parents into thinking themselves sovereign and autonomous, and into thinking they could ignore the knowledge which comes from God."⁴ How did Adam let his trust in God die? Here I can only offer my own speculations because we really don't know.

Recall: there were two special trees in the garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. Put there by God, they were intended as something good and necessary for man. Yet one of these trees, the first one, proved deadly. How could this be so?

The term "tree" is likely being used here metaphorically. A tree is something towering in size, strong or firmly rooted, good for protection/shade and life-bearing. Fatherhood is like a tree insomuch as a father is the origin of a family which gets larger and larger over time, a father is the head or authority figure grounding society in justice, a father has the duty of protecting the other members of the family, and the very name "father" denotes one who begets life in others.

The two trees denote two different fatherhoods. God, in some way, must have revealed to Adam the reality of evil in the world in the persons of the fallen angels. Created good by God, they sinned by their own free will, and so had come to have "knowledge," or experience, of both "good" (their original state) and of "evil" (their present fallen state). One in particular, Satan, was the "father" of this evil tree, for his lies had led many others to follow him in rebellion.⁵

God warned Adam, then, that to "eat" of this "tree," to take in Satan's ideas, intellectually "chewing" on them, "swallowing" his lies, would only lead to death. It would lead Adam to commit his own sin and break his own loving relationship with God. God further warned Adam that he could not do battle against this evil "tree" alone. He needed God's help, God's grace. This is because the fallen angels, being spirits, were of a higher nature than Adam. On the natural level they were stronger and smarter than him. The only way to protect himself was to eat from the other tree, the tree of life, to take shelter in the goodness of his Heavenly Father: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and abides in the shade of the Almighty says to the Lord: 'My refuge, my stronghold'" (Ps 91).

In other words, God was asking Adam to humble himself, to recognize his dependency upon his Creator, and to have a heroic faith in God if any creature should come along to contradict what God had just revealed to him: "So stand your ground, with truth buckled round your waist ... always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to put out the burning arrows of the evil one ... and receive the word of God from the Spirit to use as a sword" (Eph 6:14-17). It was by meditating upon the Word of God-constantly "feeding" on it, "chewing" it, "swallowing" it- that he would preserve God's life in his soul and so himself as an "image" of God: "Happy indeed is the man ... whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters" (Ps 1:1-3).

Adam could know by reason the possible existence of created spirits or "separated substances," as filling in a metaphysical gap between the visible world and God, who was Pure Uncreated Spirit. But he had to take it on faith that such beings did, in fact, exist. He never met one, nor could his physical eyes ever see one. Adam could theoretically "see" the possibility of moral evil, if intelligent creatures endowed with freedom, like himself and Eve, should ever abuse that freedom and disobey God's command. But he had to take it on God's Word that such malevolent creatures did, in fact, exist and were hostile to him and the woman. Remember, everything about him in the garden was good, even the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for at this point it only represented a warning to Adam: "Be calm, but vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. Stand up to him, strong in faith" (1 Pet 5:8-9). Furthermore, Adam was well aware of his privileged position in the garden. He was its king. His intelligence and graced nature made him higher than all the other animals, whom he mastered by giving them each a name (Gen 2:20). He was even higher than Eve, in the sense of being the origin of the human race. She had come forth from him. Now his privileged position was shaken by the revelation of other creatures higher than him by nature and still preserved in grace-the good angels who had not fallen, and who were still the magnificent and beautiful "sons of God" that God had created them to be. What a hard pill to swallow! Yes, he would have to humble himself.

And Satan saw his chance. He had been studying his enemy for some time and could see no other way. The man was perfect, loaded with gifts of nature and grace. Adam had everything going for him: infused knowledge, a profound harmony between body and soul, an intimate friendship with God, a devoted faithful wife. The list went on and on, and so did Satan's "envy" (Wis 2:24). The man was king of the garden, and he knew it. He could not be tempted, therefore, by any lesser created thing, but only by his own excellence. Pride. The man had to be seduced by pride. He had to be made to forget God's warning and to think more and more about his own excellence, to be made jealous of the good angels and doubtful of the bad ones. He had to be kept away from the tree of life-meditating on God's goodness-and be puffed up, more and more with a boastful self-confidence in his own power and strength, which could surely take on any Intruder to the garden without God's help. All this as cunningly as possible by slowly, deliberately, confusing Adam's mind with doubts.

We don't know exactly when it happened or how it happened, but Adam let "trust in his Creator die in his heart." By the time the Serpent came along to engage Eve in a conversation, Adam had already succumbed to a blinding pride. We know this from his silence. Adam did not say or do anything to combat the Serpent. Why should he, when he had already "swallowed" the Serpent's lies? When he already nurtured a secret desire to "taste" the forbidden "fruit" by rebelling against his Heavenly Father, whom he no longer saw as good, but as a threat to his autonomy and freedom as king of the garden? I quote John Paul II again:

As we know from Revelation, in human history the "rays of fatherhood" meet a first resistance in the obscure but real fact of original sin. This is truly the key for interpreting reality. Original sin is not only the violation of a positive command of God but also, and above all, a violation of the will of God expressed in that command. Original sin attempts, then, to abolish fatherhood, destroying its rays which permeate the created world, placing in doubt the truth about God who is Love and leaving man only with a sense of the master-slave relationship.⁶

But Satan also knew that Eve posed a problem. She could undo all of his efforts to seduce the man. She was right there in the garden with Adam. She could talk to him, reminding him of the warning God had given them. She could think up reasons why they should trust in God, pointing out their Creator's infinite perfections. She could pray for divine help, asking God to protect her husband at the hour of temptation. Eve had to be neutralized, kept out of harm's way. The best way to achieve this was to exploit her subordinate relationship to her husband. Let her assume that Adam, as head, would take care of any intruders. Let her trust too much in her husband, and not enough in God. Lull her spiritually to sleep.

The strategy must have worked, because later Eve will tell the Serpent, "We must not even touch the forbidden tree." God never said that. Those are Eve's words. Why did she think of the warning that way? Because she had not let it sufficiently "touch" her life. She had not heeded it enough. In her, too, trust in the Creator, if not dead, was dying.

The "Serpent" and "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" basically refer to the same reality, then, to the mystery of evil. When the warning is not heeded, evil has an open door for manifesting itself in all its seductive cunningness. The use of the term "Serpent" denotes something life-threatening, as Hahn points out in A Father Keeps His Promises. It is not just any kind of serpent, but a poisonous one. Since the venom of a snake is in its bite, or "mouth," the poison of the Serpent, the harm it does to the man and the woman, comes out of its mouth, in the lying word it sends out to "father" them in evil.

But Satan also knew that he was dealing with body-soul composites. He may have made great progress in seducing their hearts, but his work would only come to "fruition" in a material action Adam and Eve would perform, something which would "outform" their rebellion in an act diametrically opposed to God's command. Yes, the English translations of Genesis 2:16-God "commanded," "ordered," "admonished"-all basically agree. God expressly told them to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Everyone assumes this is the command Adam and Eve broke. But this is only the negative expression of His Will for Adam and Eve. God didn't want them to die for a reason. The positive expression of His Will is found elsewhere, in the command God gave the man and the woman to ... "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it" (Gen 1:28). Adam and Eve had a mission. That mission was to be fruitful and, in so doing, to carry God's image to the ends of the earth in all the new human beings they would bring forth. They were to start a family-God's adopted family on earth. It was this command, to be fruitful, which I believe they deliberately flaunted.

How did Satan appear to them? Probably not literally as a serpent, but in his usual guise as an "angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14), as a wonderful, new, shimmering Power. What did he say to them? Here we have to read in between the given lines, expand the dialogue a bit. It was probably something like this:

Look here, you are the most exalted of all creatures on the face of the earth, far above all other animals and living things. You don't have to use your bodies, therefore, to perform this act God has commanded you to do. You don't have to grovel in the ground like other animals which propagate. You can be like one of us-spirits-who love yet never bring forth children ... [first attack, pride] ... Yes, you can do better than the mere animals and make a life for yourself apart from God, right here in this beautiful, peaceful garden. Who says children will be a blessing? You don't need other persons around here to mess up your plans, to have to share your time and goods with. You can have all this paradise for yourselves! ... [then, greed] ... As for your bodies, see them in a new light, as part of the pleasure and delight which is your due, and not as a means of union and fertility! You have the power to redefine your relationship to each other! You decide what a marriage is to be! You decide what is good and evil for you right now! You be lords of nature! Eat of my words. Trust me, you won't die, but will be like me, like gods ... [finally, lust for power].

Eve sees that the fruit is "good," "pleasing," "desirable" (Gen 3:6). Why shouldn't she when Adam, as head, is neither doing nor saying anything in contradiction to the Intruder? She makes the first move and actually commits some impure act with her body, a gesture which proves she interiorly repudiates God's command to use her sexuality a certain way. In effect she says with her body, "I will not serve!" Maybe she reasons that Adam, in the way he is acting, already "knows" of this new "power" being promised them. If so, she is not going to be left behind. Perhaps Adam, in turn, cunningly waits for Eve to make the first move. If she outwardly sins first, then when he follows suit, he can blame her for their rebellion. In fact, this is his defense when God later questions him about his behavior, "Me? I'm not guilty! No, it is the woman, whom You put here in the garden. She did the deed first. She gave me the fruit, so I ate it" (see Gen 3:12). If this is so, how far did the first man fall from grace!

That their sin involved some kind of impure act with the body is borne out by Genesis 2:25 and Genesis 3:7. Before the Fall they are naked and unashamed, After the Fall they try to cover their bodies, because of the shame they feel. Their bodies have somehow become "impure," because used in a way contrary to their marital covenant. That human beings could become so proud as to ignore the natural law, and claim the power to redefine what makes for a marriage, is borne out by the contraceptive culture we presently live in, with its widespread push to legalize homosexual "marriages." Adam and Eve's sin of pride, in fact, seems to be all around us today, in all sorts of attempts to manipulate nature through genetic engineering: Terminator seeds. Genetically altered foods. Cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Cow-men and other hybrids. "You will be like gods, knowing what is good and evil ..."