Genesis 3:1-15

Genesis 3 - What really happened with the Fall (part 1)

One of the fascinating things about the Bible is that it is the best selling book in the world every year. It is printed in almost all known languages, including languages that many have not even heard of. Also there are a number of stories that have made their way into the common consciousness, e.g. Jonah being swallowed by the whale, the separating of the Red Sea, the birth of Jesus in the manger and subsequently, the crucifixion. But along with many stories, the actual plot is different from what is conventionally passed around in society. One of these instances is the story of Adam and Eve and their eventual expulsion from the Garden of Eden, known as The Fall. What really happened and what was the real reason that mankind was cast out of Eden? Today we are looking at this issue: What was the Fall really about and was it really an apple?

This story is well known to many. Adam is created by God and shortly thereafter came Eve. This story is found in Gen 1:27 and again in Gen 2:7-25. We all know the story where Adam was made from dirt and later God put him to sleep, took a rib, and turned that into Eve. This resulted in the perfect companion for man, and Adam named her ‘woman’. This complementary relationship was the foundation for marriage, designed to be an exclusive and permanent commitment between man and woman. This resulted in the family unit as the primary relationship that was the basis for civilization from thereon.

Now that we have gotten this off to the side, we now turn to the subsequent events that were introduced in Genesis 3, the Fall. Here we can look at this in two parts, the Temptation and the Repercussions. The Temptation is covered in the first seven verses of Genesis 3 -

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Many people believe that the ‘Original Sin’ committed by Adam and Eve was the act of eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, an act of rebellion, but that is only the backend of their sin. First off, what you see is Satan, in the person of the serpent, has accosted Eve in hopes of tempting her to go against the will of God. The serpent convinced her that eating the fruit was not as dire an action as she was led to believe, but merely a means of controlling them. The serpent lies about the repercussions of eating the fruit, stating that God would not kill them and also threw out the additional enticement of obtaining the wisdom to differentiate between good and evil, putting them at the same plane as God. She wanted this wisdom and that God did not want them to have this right, and preferred that they remain ignorant and naive. This was received by Adam and Eve as being refused their natural right to have this knowledge and to be at the same level of God. At this point Eve commits THREE ADDITIONAL sins before it is all over:

1 - She saw the fruit and desired it, something she knew she could not and should not have.

2 - She believed the serpent over God and desired the wisdom and elevation to status equal to God’s.

3 - She also willingly led Adam to sin by offering him the fruit as well, fully knowing that this went against God’s direction.

Now Adam was not blameless in this action either. Adam knew that he was not authorized to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as noted in Genesis 2:16, 17-

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Thus Adam looks like he deliberately ate of it, not because Eve convinced him, but in Gen 3:6, it states that ‘she also gave some to her husband, who was with her’. With her where? WITH THE SERPENT! Adam was there with Eve and heard the conversation between Eve and the Serpent. He knew what was going on and took a bite anyway! Because he knew of the consequences, he went ahead and ate for the same reason as Eve, to gain the knowledge and be like God. So Adam’s sins were as such:

1 - He also believed the serpent over God and desired the wisdom and elevation to status equal to God’s.

2 - He also saw the fruit and desired it, something she knew she could not and should not have.

Yes, they went against the word of God and ate from the Tree. In the end, it was all a list of actions and thoughts that Adam and Eve partook as a showing of rebellion against God’s command, and THAT is what started it all. To answer the second question, no it was not an apple. The original Hebrew text used the word peri which is a generic word meaning ‘any produce from a crop-bearing plants, shrub or tree’.

I hope you found this interesting and thought-provoking. If you have any comments please post them below, along with any questions, observations and second-thoughts. Also don’t forget to subscribe so you can receive notifications on upcoming videos as well as like the companion Facebook page. Please let me know if there are any topics you would like to see addressed and I will see what I can come up with. Next up is Part 2 of the Fall, where we look at the repercussions of Adam’s and Eve’s actions. Thanks for watching and God Bless.