Fall

The label given to the Christian concept of how sin, suffering, and death came into the world. This is popularly attributed to the disobedience of Adam and Eve, when in Eden, they partook of the fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 3). The concept also serves to explain the sorry state of humankind's present plight.

For such a dominant doctrine of the Christian faith, there is, surprisingly, very little said about it in the Bible. Though everything Scriptures say about the human plight seems easily explained by the concept as mapped out in Gen 3, little about "the Fall" is found in the Bible outside of this chapter. In fact the bulk of the Old Testament and the entirety of the New Testament emphasizes individual responsibility for our failings rather than to the effects of a such a Fall, even though Rom 5:12 affirms that "it was through one man that sin entered the world, and through sin death, and this death pervaded the whole human race". In teaching about the "fallen" state of humanity, it is important, therefore, for us to keep this twin perspective of Scriptures in mind, not making too much of one or the other, and not demising the one at the expence of the other.

Further Reading & Resources:

☰ R. J. Berry, "This Cursed Earth: Is 'the Fall' Credible?" Science & Christian Belief 11.1 (1999): 29-49.