From: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
The Creation of Adam
Man in Paradise
Temptation and the First Sin
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
2:7. As far as his body is concerned, man belongs to the earth. To affirm this,
the sacred writer must have been always conscious of the fact that when a
person dies, his/her body will turn into dust, as Genesis 3:19 will in due course
tell us. Or it may be that this sort of account (a special one like the literary
genre of an these chapters) is based on the similarity between the word “adam”,
which means man in general, and “adamah”, which means “reddish soil”; and
given that the words look alike, the sacred writer may have drawn the conclusion
that there is in fact a connection between the two very things (unsophisticated
etymology goes in for this sort of thing). But the fact that man belongs to the
earth is not his most characteristic feature: as the author sees it, animals too
are made up of the stuff of the earth. What makes man different is the fact that
he receives his life from God. Life is depicted here in terms of breathing, because
only living animals breathe. The fact that God infuses life into man in this way
means that although man on account of his corporeal nature is material, his
existence as a living being comes directly from God, that is, it is animated by
a vital principle—the soul or the spirit—which does not derive from the earth. This
principle of life received from God also endows man’s body with its own dignity
and puts it on a higher level than that of animals.
God is portrayed as a potter who models man’s body in clay; this means that
man is supposed to live in accordance with a source of life that is higher than
that deriving from matter. The image of God as a potter shows that man (all of
him) is in God’s hands just like clay in a potter’s hands; he should not resist or
oppose God’s will (cf. Is 29: 16; Jer 18:6; Rom 9:20-21).
2:8-15. Here we have a scenario in which God and man are friends; there is no
such thing as evil or death. The garden is described as being a leafy oasis, with
the special feature of having two trees in the center, the tree of life and the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil—symbolizing the power to give life, and the
ultimate reference-point for man’s moral behavior. Out of the garden flow the four
rivers the author is most familiar with; these water the entire earth and make it
fertile. What the Bible is teaching here is that man was created to be happy, to
enjoy the life and goodness which flow from God. “The Church, interpreting the
symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New
Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were
constituted in an original ‘state of holiness and justice’ (Council of Trent, “De
Peccato Originali”). This grace of original holiness was ‘to share in...divine life’
(”Lumen Gentium”, 2)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 375).
>From the outset, man is charged with cultivating the garden—working it, protec-
ting it and making it bear fruit. Here again we can see that work is a commission
that God gives man from the start. “From the beginning of creation man has had
to work,” Bl. J. Escriva said. “This is not something that I have invented. It is
enough to turn to the opening pages of the Bible. There you can read that, before
sin entered the world, and in its wake death, punishment and misery (cf. Rom
5:12). God made Adam from the clay of the earth, and created for him and his
descendants this beautiful world we live in, “ut operaretur et custodiret ilium”
(Gen 2:15), so that we might cultivate it and “look after it” (”Friends of God”,
57). But man needs to recognize God’s mastery over creation and over himself
by obeying the commandment God gives him as a kind of covenant, telling him
not to eat the forbidden fruit. If man lost the original happiness he was created
to enjoy (the writer will later explain), it was because he broke that covenant.
3:1-24. “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms
a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.
Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is
marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (”Catechism of
the Catholic Church”, 390). The Bible is teaching us here about the origin of evil—
of all the evils mankind experiences, and particularly the evil of death. Evil does
not come from God (he created man to live a happy life and to be his friend); it
comes from sin, that is, from the fact that man broke the divine commandment,
thereby destroying the happiness he was created for, and his harmony with God,
with himself, and with creation in general. “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust
in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s com-
mand. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be
disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness” (”Catechism of the
Catholic Church”, 397).
In his description of that original sin and its consequences, the sacred writer
uses symbolic language (garden, tree, serpent) in order to convey an important
historical and religious truth—that no sooner did he walk the earth than man dis-
obeyed God, and therein lies the cause of evil. We can also see here how every
sin happens and what results from it: “The eyes of our soul grow dull. Reason
proclaims itself sufficient to understand everything, without the aid of God. This
is a subtle temptation, which hides behind the power of our intellect, given by
our Father God to man so that he might know and love him freely. Seduced by
this temptation, the human mind appoints itself the center of the universe, being
thrilled with the prospect that ‘you shall be like gods’ (Gen 3:15). So filled with
love for itself, it turns its back on the love of God” (BI. J. Escriva, “Christ Is
Passing By”, 6).
3:1. The serpent symbolizes the devil, a personal being who tries to frustrate
God’s plans and draw man to perdition. “Behind the disobedient choice of our
first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall
into death out of envy (Wis 2:24). Scripture and the Church ‘s Tradition see in
this being a fallen angel, called ‘Satan’ or the ‘devil’. The Church teaches what
Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: ‘The devil and the other demons
were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own
doing’ (Fourth Vatican Council)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 391).
3:2-5. The devil’s temptation strategy is very realistically described here: he
falsifies what God has said, raises suspicions about God’s plans and intentions,
and, finally, portrays God as man’s enemy. ‘The analysis of sin in its original
dimension indicates that, through the influence of the ‘father of lies’, throughout
the history of humanity there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God,
even to the point of hating him: ‘ Love of self to the point of contempt for God,’ as
St Augustine puts it (cf. “De Civitate Dei”, 14, 28). Man will be inclined to see in
God primarily a limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and
the fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modem age, when the atheis-
tic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion causes the
radical ‘alienation’ of man, as if man were dispossessed of his own humanity
when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to man,
and exclusively to man! Hence a process of thought and historico-sociological
practice in which the rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his
‘death’. An absurdity, both in concept and expression!” (John Paul II, “Dominum
et Vivificantem”, 38).
3:6 And so both of them, the man and the woman, disobeyed God’s command-
ment. Genesis refers not to an apple but to a mysterious fruit: eating it symboli-
zes Adam and Eve’s sin—one of disobedience.
The sacred writer leads us to the denouement by giving a masterly psychological
description of temptation, dialogue with the tempter, doubt about God’s truthful-
ness, and then yielding to one’s sensual appetites. This sin, Pope John Paul also
commented, “constitutes ‘the principle and root of all the others’”. We find our-
selves faced with the original reality of sin in human history and at the same time
in the whole of the economy of salvation. [...] This original disobedience presup-
poses a ‘rejection’, or at least ‘a turning away from the truth contained in the Word
of God’, who creates the world. [...] ‘Disobedience’ means precisely going beyond
that limit, which remains impassable to the will and the freedom of man as a
created being. For God the Creator is the one definitive source of the moral order
in the world created by him. Man cannot decide by himself what is good and what
is evil—cannot ‘know good and evil, like God’. In the created world ‘God’ indeed
remains the first and sovereign source ‘for deciding about good and evil’, through
the intimate truth of being, which is the reflection ‘of the Word’, the eternal son,
consubstantial with the Father. To man, created to the image of God, the Holy
Spirit gives the gift of ‘conscience’, so that in this conscience the image may
faithfully reflect its model, which is both Wisdom and eternal Law, the source of
the moral order in man and in the world. ‘Disobedience’, as the original dimension
of sin, means the ‘rejection of this source’ , through man’s claim to become an
independent and exclusive source for deciding about good and evil” (”Dominum
et Vivificantem”, 33-36).
3:7-13. This passage begins the description of the effects of the original sin. Man
and woman have come to know evil, and it shows, initially, in a most direct way—
in their own bodies. The inner harmony described in Genesis 2:25 is broken, and
concupiscence rears its head. Their friendship with God is also broken, and they
flee from his presence, to avoid their nakedness being seen. As if his Creator
could not see them! The harmony between man and woman is also fractured:
he puts the blame on her, and she puts it on the serpent. But all three share in
the responsibility, and therefore all three are going to pay the penalty.
“The harmony in which they found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now
destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered;
the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions (cf. Gen 3:7-16), their
relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is
broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man (cf. Gen 3:17,19).
Because of man, creation is now subject ‘to its bondage to decay’ (Rom 8:21).
Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true:
man will ‘return to the ground’ (Gen 3: 19), for out of it he was taken. “Death
makes its entrance into human history” (cf. Rom 5:12)” (”Catechism of the
Catholic Church”, 400).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Romans 5:12-19
Adam’s Original Sin
[15] But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s
trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that
one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. [17] If, because of one man’s trespass,
death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abun-
dance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man
Jesus Christ.
[18] Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s
act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. [19] For as by one
man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by One Man’s obedience many
will be made righteous. [20] Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more, [21] so that, as sin reigned in death,
grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
12-21. Four important teachings are discernible in this passage: 1) Adam’s sin
and its consequences, which include, particular death (verses 12-14); 2) the con-
trast between the effects of Original Sin and those of the Redemption wrought by
Christ (verses 15-19); 3) the role of the Law of Moses in relation to sin (especial-
ly verses 13, 20), anticipating what is explained more elaborately in Chapter 7;
4) the final victory of the reign of grace (verses 20-21). These teachings are clo-
sely connected by one single idea: only Jesus Christ can justify us and bring us
to salvation. The Apostle refers to Adam as a “type of the One who was to come”,
that is, Jesus, the Messiah, who is the true head of the human race; and he also
stresses that Christ, by His obedience and submission to the Father’s will, coun-
ters the disobedience and rebellion of Adam, restoring to us — superabundantly —
the happiness and eternal life which we lost through the sin of our First Parents.
Here we can see the clash of the two kingdoms — the kingdom of sin and death
and the kingdom of righteousness and grace. These two kingdoms were estab-
lished, the first by Adam and the second by Christ, and spread to all mankind.
Because the superabundance of Christ’s grace is the more important factor,
Adam’s sin is referred to in no great detail. St. Paul takes it as something every-
one is familiar with. All Christians have read about or been told about the account
of the Fall in Genesis (Genesis 3) and they are familiar with many passages in
Sacred Scripture which confirm and explain something which is self-evident —
that all men are mortal and that the human race is subject to a whole series of
afflictions (cf. Sirach 25:33; Wisdom 2:23-24; Psalm 51:7; Job 14:4; Genesis
8:21; etc.).
12-14. This passage can be elaborated on as follows: just as sin entered the
world through the action of a single individual man, so righteousness is attained
for us by one man — Jesus Christ. Adam, the first man, is a type of the “new A-
dam”: Adam contained within himself all mankind, his offspring; the “new Adam”
is “the first-born of all creation” and “the head of the body, the Church” (Colos-
sians 1:15, 18) because He is the redeeming Word Incarnate. To Adam we are
linked by flesh and blood, to Christ by faith and the Sacraments.
When, in His infinite goodness, He raised Adam to share in the divine life, God
also decreed that our First Parent would pass on to us his human nature and
with it all the various gifts that perfected it and the grace that sanctified it. But
Adam committed a sin by breaking God’s commandment and as a result he im-
mediately lost the holiness and righteousness in which he had been installed,
and because of this disloyalty he incurred God’s wrath and indignation and, as
consequence, death — as God had warned him. By becoming mortal and falling
under the power of the devil, Adam “was changed for the worse”, in both body
and soul (cf. Council of Trent, “De Peccato Originali”, Canon 1). From then on
Adam and his descendants pass on a human nature deprived of supernatural
gifts, and men are in a state of enmity with God, which means that they cannot
attain eternal beatitude.
The fact of Original Sin is a truth of faith. This has been stated once again solemn-
ly by Paul VI: “We believe that in Adam all have sinned. From this it follows that,
on account of the original offense committed by him, human nature, which is com-
mon to all men, is reduced to that condition in which it must suffer the consequen-
ces of that Fall [...]. Consequently, fallen human nature is deprived of the econo-
my of grace which it formerly enjoyed. It is wounded in its natural powers and sub-
jected to the dominion of death which is transmitted to all men. It is in this sense
that every man is born in sin. We hold, therefore, in accordance with the Council
of Trent, that Original Sin is transmitted along with human nature, “not by imita-
tion but by propagation”, and is, therefore, incurred by each person individually”
(”Creed of the People of God”, 16).
Our own experience bears out what divine Revelation tells us: when we examine
our conscience we realize that we have this inclination towards evil and we are
conscious of being enmeshed in evils which cannot have their source in our holy
Creator (cf. Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 13). The obvious presence of evil in
the world and in ourselves convince us of the profound truth contained in Reve-
lation and moves us to fight against sin.
“So much wretchedness! So many offenses! Mine, yours, those of all mankind....
“Et in peccatis concepit me mater mea!” In sin did my mother conceive me!
(Psalm 51:5). I, like all men, came into the world stained with the guilt of our First
Parents. And then...my own sins: rebellions, thought about, desired, committed....
“To purify us of this rottenness, Jesus chose to humble Himself and take on the
form of a slave (cf. Philippians 2:7), becoming incarnate in the spotless womb of
our Lady, His Mother, who is also your Mother and mine. He spent thirty years
in obscurity, working like everyone else, at Joseph’s side. He preached. He
worked miracles.... And we repaid Him with a cross.
“Do you need more motives for contrition?” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way of the
Cross, IV, 2).
13-14. Both the commandment imposed by God on Adam, and the Mosaic Law,
threatened the transgressor with death; but the same cannot be said of the pe-
riod between Adam and Moses. In that period also people did sin against the na-
tural law written on every person’s heart (cf. 2:12ff). However, their sins “were not
like the transgression of Adam”, because the natural law did not explicitly bind
under pain of death. If, nevertheless, they in fact had to die, this proves, the Apo-
stle concludes, that death is due not to personal sins but to original sin. It is al-
so proved, the Fathers of the Church usually add, by the fact that some people
die before reaching the use of reason, that is, before they are capable of sinning.
Death is a consequence of original sin, because that sin brought with it the loss
of the “preternatural” gift of immortality (cf. Gen 2:17; 3:19). Adam incurred this
loss when, through a personal act of his, he broke an explicit, specific command
of God. Later, under the Mosaic Law, there were also certain precepts which in-
volved the death penalty if broken (cf., for example, Exod 21:12ff; Lev 24:16). In
the period from Adam to Moses there was no law which stated: If you sin, you
shall die. However, people in that period were all subject to death, even those
who committed no sin “like the transgression of Adam”, that is, what is termed
“actual sin”.
Therefore, death is due to a sin — original sin — which attaches to each man, wo-
man and child, yet which is not an “actual sin”. This original sin is the cause of
death, and the fact that everyone dies is the proof that everyone is affected by
original sin. The Second Vatican Council sums up this teaching as follows: “The
Church, taught by divine Revelation, declares that God has created man in view
of a blessed destiny that lies beyond the limits of his sad state on earth. More-
over, the Christian faith teaches that bodily death, from which man would have
been immune had he not sinned (cf. Wis 1:13; 2:23-24; Rom 5:21; 6:23; Jas 1:
15), will be overcome when that wholeness which he lost through his own fault
will be given once again to him by the almighty and merciful Savior. For God has
called man, and still calls him, to cleave with all his being to him in sharing for
ever a life that is divine and free from all decay” (”Gaudium Et Spes”, 18).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.