Sonde Gen 3

Sonde Gen 3 The Story of the Fall (Gen. 3). This story stands aloof from legal concepts and does not influence them. Perhaps using and bending mythological materials, the author depicts the origin and results of sin with childlike force. He does not use the common terms, since these would be out of place in this portrayal of life. Apart from a few hints he lets readers draw their own conclusions, focusing on the events that the terms are meant to explain. He thus brings out far more clearly the sinister reality with which theology and cultus deal. The basic ideas of the story are the prohibition that expresses the divine will, the clever serpent that sees the apparent disproportion between the transgression and its consequence, the question put to the woman, her readiness for scepticism, the suggestion that the warning is not serious and is only in the divine interest and against human interests, the attractiveness of the fruit, the foolish violation by the woman and the compliance of the man, and the four results: shame at nakedness, hiding from God, subterfuges to excuse the action, and punishment by God. The stress in this chain of events lies on what is mysteriously indicated by the phrases “being as God” and “knowing good and evil.” “Being as God” involves doubt that God’s rule is really in the human interest and unconditionally binding. Helped by the serpent, the man and woman see that they can transgress the divine order. Indeed, they believe that practical reason, exalting itself as lord and God, impels them to do so without bothering about religious correctives or divine judgment. Yet the story also points out that there is no escaping divine accountability. Those who try to be as God finally stand before God like children who have been found out and are full of evasions. The author thus brings out the full absurdity of the Prometheus motif. But he does so with insight into the tragic human situation in which it seems that there is immanent justification—in the desire for culture, the work of thought, and sensual longing—for human hostility to God and the attempt to break free from the divine prohibition. The true reality of sin can be grasped only when one perceives that the divine likeness itself opens up the possibilities of deviation and the unfathomable distress which every act of deviation causes when it comes under the pitiless divine glance. In spite of aetiological features, then, the story in its totality offers a perspective on human existence as a whole. The curses undoubtedly explain common features of human life, just as the realization of nakedness explains the general use of clothing. Nevertheless, the explanations carry weight only because they relate, not to an isolated act, but to an act that is typical of the way that all of us act toward God and incur guilt before him. The aetiology thus extends beyond details—even such momentous details as sorrow, work, shame, and death—to the reality of sin as the real force behind all human unrest and unhappiness. Incidentally, shame at nakedness serves very well to express the shame, the insecurity, and the secretiveness that result from sin, quite apart from the problem of sexuality which it also involves. A more general aetiological explanation justifies us in building on the story a doctrine of original sin in the sense of universal sinfulness. Sin is motivated by a human impulse that is present in all of us, so that in thousands of variations we will all be tempted similarly and sin similarly. The uncontrolled intellect is in conflict with religion, and freedom of will and thought prepares the ground for sin. By making the serpent the representative of the uncontrolled intellect, the author stresses the demonic character of

the thinking which derives from doubt and engages in fanatical striving. This comes over us like an outside force, strengthens existing desires, and thus overpowers uncritical obedience. Our experienced inability to resist at this point compels us to recognize the general validity of the phenomenon. Wishing and to some extent able to be wiser than God and to pierce behind his thoughts, we open up a sphere of mistrust in which we renounce our proper attitude as creatures, regard the Creator with cynicism, and act as though we were ourselves God, responsible only to ourselves. Since reason and the power of judgment are native to us, the motive for sinning is present just as necessarily as life itself. The author, however, is not trying to give a theological but a popular account. Piety rather than theology comes to expression in his simple presentation. An unsparing desire for truth gives it its unforgettable impress. Nowhere else in the OT do we find religious discussion that is so penetrating and yet so sustained by piety. The narrator is not spinning a theory but speaking out of the compelling experience of inner tension and trying to give his readers some sense of the serious situation which is inseparable from human existence. Why God made us thus, he does not try to say. His religion is to be found in this silence. [G. QUELL, I, 267-86] 1

OT Old Testament 1Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. 1995, c1985. Theological dictionary of the New Testament. Translation of: Theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen Testament. (45). W.B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, Mich.