Fall of Man

The first humans’ disobedience to God, described in Genesis as eating forbidden fruit. In Christian theology, it explains the entrance of sin and mortality into human life.

Adam and Eve: The first human couple in the Genesis creation narratives. Their choice to eat the forbidden fruit constitutes the disobedience at the story’s center.
Genesis 2: The biblical chapter describing the creation of Adam, the Garden of Eden, and God’s command about its trees. It establishes the setting and prohibition that make the transgression possible.
Ancestral sin: An Eastern Christian account of humanity’s inheritance of mortality and a damaged condition from Adam’s sin. It contrasts with Western accounts that emphasize inherited guilt or original sin.
Theodicy: The attempt to reconcile the existence of evil with the existence and goodness of God. The Fall offers one Christian explanation for evil and suffering in a created world.
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: A tree in Eden whose fruit God forbids Adam and Eve to eat in Genesis. Its prohibition establishes the command their disobedience violates.
Genesis 3: The biblical chapter narrating the serpent’s temptation, the eating of forbidden fruit, and the expulsion from Eden. This chapter supplies the narrative most directly identified with the Fall.
Pelagianism: A theological position associated with Pelagius that denies humans inherit guilt from Adam’s sin. Its denial of inherited sin challenged Augustine’s interpretation of the Fall.
Salvation: In Christianity, deliverance from sin and its consequences through God’s action. The Fall frames the human predicament that Christian salvation is understood to address.
Serpent in Eden: The creature in Genesis that persuades Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Its deception precipitates the act that Christian theology interprets as the Fall.
Paul the Apostle: An early Christian missionary and author whose letters form part of the New Testament. Paul connects Adam’s trespass with sin and death in Romans 5.

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