Fall of Adam?

Did Adam “fall” into sin?  If we follow the strict language of Scripture, it would seem not.  So far as I can find, Adam is never said to have “fallen.”  Adam sinners, transgressed, committed an act of transgression, and by his action sin and death entered the world (Romans 5:12-21).  But the only reference to a Genesis 3 “fall” is to the “fall” of Eve: “it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression” (1 Timothy 2:15).

Perhaps this is because the image of a “fall” suggests a sin of inadvertency as opposed to a high-handed sin.  Adam didn’t fall because he knew full well that he was disobeying God by not intervening to stop Eve from eating and by eating the fruit himself.  Eve was the one who “fell” into sin, misled by the serpent and stumbling because of her husband’s neglect and selfishness.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Restoring Man at Notre Dame

Carl R. Trueman

It is fascinating to be an outsider on the inside of an institution going through times of…

Deliver Us from Evil

Kari Jenson Gold

In a recent New York Times article entitled “Freedom With a Side of Guilt: How Food Delivery…

Natural Law Needs Revelation

Peter J. Leithart

Natural law theory teaches that God embedded a teleological moral order in the world, such that things…