Fall: 1 definition

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Source: archive.org: Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Fall refers to:—The story of the Fall in Genesis 3:1-24 is the immediate sequel to the account of man’s creation with which the Jahwistic document opens (see Creation). It tells how the first man and woman, living in childlike innocence and happiness in the Garden of Eden, were tempted by the subtle serpent to doubt the goodness of their Creator, and aim at the possession of forbidden knowledge by tasting the fruit of the one tree of which they had been expressly charged not to eat. Their transgression was speedily followed by detection and punishment; on the serpent was laid the curse of perpetual enmity between it and mankind; the woman was doomed to the pains of child-bearing: and the man to unremitting toil in the cultivation of the ground, which was cursed on account of his sin. Finally, lest the man should use his newly-acquired insight to secure the boon of immortality by partaking of the tree of life, he was expelled from the garden, which appears to be conceived as still existing, though barred to human approach by the cherubim and the flaming sword.

It is right to point out that certain incongruities of representation suggest that two slightly varying narratives have been combined in the source from which the passage is taken (J [Note: Jahwist.] ). The chief difficulty arises in connexion with the two trees on which the destiny of mankind is made to turn. In Genesis 2:9 the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grow together in the midst of the garden; in Genesis 2:17 the second alone is made the test of man’s obedience. But ch. 3 (down to Genesis 2:22 ) knows of only one central tree, and that obviously (though it is never so named) the tree of knowledge.

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