1. Human’s Choice to turn away from God: First Sin Narratives
Sources: Sacred Scriptures: Gen 3: 1-19
Church Teaching: CFC 383
“Original Sin” – state in which we are born as members of the human race
The beginning of Sin: The Fall
The origin of evil in the world is depicted as Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience to God.
Literary Sources: Gilgamesh Epic
Legend of Adapa and the Babylonian Theodicy (2nd millennium)
Key Elements:
Serpent = has a prominent role in mythology
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
Tree of Life (Tree of Immortality)
Entrance of Suffering and Death (as a result of sin)
Original Sin = each of our sins form part of this sin of Adam, increases it and give it its
particular character.
Optimism = God’s Word will come true
Paradise Lost
Their act of eating the fruit of the forbidden tree symbolizes the abuse of the human freedom.
Their act represents the temptation to “play God”, rejecting any dependence on God by
deciding completely on their own what is good or bad.
As a result of their sin of disobedience and pride, they experience shame; they were banished
from the garden, entrance of suffering (mortality) and have loss of intimate with God.
Insights into the Story
Genesis uses eating the forbidden fruit as a symbol of imbiding evil.
Human beings learned evil by doing evil.
They had been tempted by the serpent to act against God, but eating the fruit and disobeying
God were still their free choice.
Temptation
Enticement of Evil
Any word of activity that invites people into any wrongdoings
Steps of temptation
 Desire
 Doubt
 Deception
 Disobedience

2. n
1)
2)
3)
4)
Originating Sin
Question: What is the origin of sin?
How did it start?
Response: It started with the sin of our
first parents described in Genesis
It is a personal sinful act at the origins
of human race
It is not transmitted
5) Resulted is the loss of grace and
supernatural gifts in first parents
6) As part of moral act, no longer exists
1)
2)
3)
4)
Originated Sin
Question: What is the basis for the
sinfulness of all humans today?
Response: It is the world-wide effects
of the original sin (Romans 5: 11-21)
There is to personal consent, the sinful
state into which all are born
It is transmitted by progation.
5) It consists in privation of grace in; world situation, -every person born into
the world, weakened nature
6) Exists as a real dimension of the human
condition
7) Wiped away by baptism:
A. Incorporates the baptized into the
Christian community and
B. Brings the Holy Spirit to indwell in the
baptized thus remaining the privation
8) But concupiscence remains.