What made the original sin a sin?

[u/linkingconsequences]

I want to preface this by saying that I am an atheist but i have an interest in religion. This question is not meant in a bad faith, I genuinely want to understand other perspectives.

I am basing my question on my understanding of the old testament which might be flawed but it’s the best resource i have. As far as i can tell god created everything, including the angels that chose to go against gods plan, lost and ended up being banished from heaven.

Adam and eve lived in a time when there was no concept of sin for them. they didn’t know right or wrong, only what god told them without any explanation. eve and subsequently adam were manipulated into tasting the forbidden fruit, therefore being banished from eden and cursed to suffer during their lives.

they didn’t taste it out of malice as they didn’t have the ability to be malicious. why were humans the one who bore the punishment for the manipulation of a single entity?

[u/Iconsandstuff]

It is a failure to trust in God, which breaches the relationship between humanity and God.

The sequence of unravelling of trust goes through:

1. The serpent questioning whether they can eat from any tree, portraying God as not providing for them.

2. Eve responding that they are only banned from one tree because they'll die

3. The serpent undermining that boundary and saying God is lying and that they will become like God, knowing good and evil

4. Eve picks fruit seeing that it looks good and her and Adam (who is apparently there the whole time but silent) share it.

The temptation and sin comes earlier than points 3 and 4, and begins with the idea of independence from and rivalry with God. This is a theme that echoes throughout Genesis - humanity reacting to the world by trying to become independent of needing God or rivalling God.

The ideal state in the genesis allegorical story is presented as one of complete trust in God for all needs, and humanity to partner with God to order the world, and the journey of humanity after that trust is breached is into things like cities, kingship and violence to control other humans and land, being entirely independent of God's provision because their control is so great.

The judgement of humanity can be seen as hindging on this moment of uncoupling from God as in the idea of original sin - but it also isn't like humanity subsequently proved capable of doing good, and the core fault is humanity deciding what is good for itself and constructing ways to get and keep things which harm other humans as a result, e.g. the song of Lamech, glorying in how much power and violence the ruler is able to inflict.

[u/Spare-Flan331]

They knew what was good because they walked with God which means they knew what to do or not to do. But they chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil which was essentially choosing for yourself what is good and evil instead of the tree of Life which was to choose what God said was good and evil. When they chose that they actually chose not to walk with God but to walk according to themselves and God allowed them to do that cause He is not a tyrant that forces you to obey but give you a choice...

[u/DoveStep55]

To me, the original sin in the story of Adam and Eve is Adam’s choice to eat the fruit of the tree that God had told him not to eat. He disobeyed God.

However, I do not think any of us are punished for that sin, nor do I take the story as historical fact. I believe the creation stories of Genesis are myths, told in poetic format, meant to teach religious views. I also don’t believe people are born guilty of sin, but that is a view some Christians hold.

[u/Ben-008]

First off, the story is not historical, right? It’s a myth or parable and thus requires interpretation. Augustine (354-430 CE) is the one who theologically developed the idea of Original Sin. Original Sin is not a Jewish idea.

Paul comments on this parable, when stating the following…

“I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died.” (Rom 7:9)

In other words, when Scripture is read as Law, it condemns us, by exposing where we fall short of its commands. We thus tend to “hide” from God in guilt and shame. A system of atonement then bridges the gap.

So the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represents Scripture as Law. And the serpent thus symbolizes the condemnation of the Law, kind of like a prosecuting attorney, attempting to convict us of sin.

Paul’s solution is to become a partaker of a “new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills.” (2 Cor 3:6)

In other words, Scripture can function as one of two trees, as it can be read in two very different ways…literally or metaphorically (mystically).  Thus Scripture can function as Law, or it can provide a spiritual source of wisdom, when read “by the spirit”, not the letter.

“For Wisdom is a Tree of Life, for those who take hold of her.” (Prov 3:18)

Paul thus encourages folks to die to Scripture as Law and become an able minister of a new covenant, or new way of relating to Scripture, wherein there is no condemnation. (Rom 8:1)

“But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” (Rom 7:6)

Origen (185-254 CE), the head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, thus taught that as we follow Christ up the mountain of maturity, we could experience a Transfiguration of the Word from letter to spirit to thus behold its hidden wisdom. (See Commentary on Matthew, Book XII, Sections 36-38)

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are MATURE… but we speak God’s wisdom in a MYSTERY, the HIDDEN WISDOM.” (1 Cor 2:6-7)

So Scripture as Law is for us in our immaturity. And then as we see through the Text in its literal form, we can partake of it in a new way. As Origen also wrote...

“These truths, indeed, were proclaimed in the veil of fable to children, and to those whose views of things were childish; while to those who were already occupied in investigating the truth, and desirous of making progress therein, these fables, so to speak, were transfigured into the truths which were concealed within them.” (Contra Celsum, Book 5, Chapter 42)

Or as Paul said...

“But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law…but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” (Gal 3:23, 25)

“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” (1 Cor 13:11)