The Fall. The consequences of the Fall and its consequences for man - spiritual death

July 31st, 2012

I decided to post my seminar essays for the semester. Even if their price is small, I wrote them with my soul, I want to somehow preserve them. In general, I like to study, but now I have almost no time left for it.

Biblical story: "The Fall and its consequences"

Man in all centuries has been the center of attention of thinkers of all countries and peoples. Peering into its nature, many of them encountered a contradiction. The harmony and beauty of human nature collided with aging, disease and decay. The height of thought and feeling, reflected in the monuments of world culture and science, bordered on stupidity, mediocrity and vulgarity. Heroism, nobility and kindness were mixed with selfishness, pettiness and malice. Man reveals himself in all the diversity of aspects of his existence as a discrete, contradictory being. Non-Christian religious and philosophical systems tried to resolve this conflict in different ways. Some associated everything negative in a person with the body, calling it a prison for the spirit, a coffin. Someone tried to deify the very negative traits of human nature. However, all these attempts by the earthly mind to penetrate the mystery of human existence are hardly any closer to the truth. Many ancient philosophers felt that it was not possible to resolve their bewilderment through natural reflection. So Socrates said: “Do not hope to correct human morals until God Himself deigns to send a special Man to instruct us.” Plato argued that “there will be no order on earth unless God Himself, hidden under the image of man, explains to us both our relationship to Him and our mutual responsibilities to each other.”

The only thing on which almost all teachings more or less agree is the recognition that a person must be different. Christianity unambiguously answers the question of human nature, based on Divine Revelation about creation, the fall of man and its consequences.

The events directly related to the creation of the world and man, the state of the first people before and after the Fall are narrated in the book of Genesis. Before talking about these events, it is worth identifying some key points necessary for a correct understanding of the first chapters of Holy Scripture.

Firstly, the purpose of the Bible essentially boils down to one thing - to communicate to man the Revelation of God necessary for his salvation. Therefore, it is unacceptable to take the book of Genesis literally for the purpose of constructing scientific theories. This book is religious, mysterious, designed to give a person, first of all, spiritual guidelines. There are two temptations: to adapt scientific data to the Bible and to adapt the Bible to scientific theory. In the first case, there is a risk that modern science will become outdated in a few years or decades. And the supposed “scientific evidence” of the Holy Scriptures will cease to be so. This will definitely be used by the appropriate people to “debunk” the Bible. God's revelation does not need props. “The Explanatory Bible” by Lopukhin and “The Law of God” by Archpriest Seraphim Slobotsky, in terms of attracting some scientific data contemporary to the authors, look untenable today.

In the second case, a distortion of the true meaning of Scripture and a shift in the focus of attention from soteriological truths to secondary circumstances and objects is inevitable. On the other hand, the world as a creation of an unknowable God cannot be understood by rational methods in its essence. Therefore, many scientists noted the fact that scientific and technological progress did not increase holistic knowledge about the world, but, on the contrary, only alienated man from understanding nature, dividing the subjects of study in his research an infinite number of times.

In order to more fully understand the essence of the fall of the first people, it is worth saying a few words about the creation and purpose of man.

God, as a Perfect Being, creates the world from nothing to be perfect. First, the invisible angelic world appears. Angels are disembodied spirits, endowed with will, intelligence and freedom, having their own hierarchy. It is among the angels that evil is born. The Supreme Angel, Dennitsa, had a proud thought and thus fell, taking part of the Angels with him. “Whoever commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sinned first” (1 John 3:8). According to Rev. Maximus the Confessor, the fall of Dennitsa occurred after the creation of man and was based on envy (which, however, is the offspring of pride). “Through the envy of the devil death entered the world” (Wis. 2:24). From that time on, evil appeared in the world. Evil itself does not have an independent essence, its own existence. Evil is the absence of good, just as darkness is the absence of light.

How could the Good God-Love allow the emergence of evil in the beginning and its repetition at all times? The answer here lies in the freedom that the Creator endowed his intelligent beings with. Freedom is the highest gift, which separates angels and people from the animal world, determined by instincts, by an insurmountable gulf.

The book of Genesis reports the following about the appearance of Adam and Eve: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). That is, on the one hand, we have something akin to all living things (“dust of the earth”), on the other hand, something that makes us related to the Creator Himself (“breath of life”). However, we do not see in the first people the opposition between flesh and spirit, characteristic of ancient philosophy. Man was created as a harmonious being, in which spirit, soul and body, mind, feelings and will were like separate sounds composed into a beautiful melody.

God creates man in His image and likeness. The image of God in man cannot be fully defined in his essence, since it is the image of an incomprehensible Divinity. However, some of its properties can be highlighted: freedom, reason, immortality. Similarity is a certain vector, a goal given to each person and humanity as a whole. Achieving Godlikeness through likening God in His properties, in other words, deification, is the goal of human life. “The expression: in the image - indicates the ability of mind and freedom; whereas the expression: in likeness means assimilation to God in virtue, as far as it is possible for a person,” writes the Monk John Damaxinus in “An Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.”

Thus, man was created with the potential for development, the prospect of which is infinite, just as the Heavenly Father is infinitely perfect (cf. Matt. 5:48). Heaven was not something static, but had in itself a constant ascent from glory to glory.

Another fact is extremely important for understanding the further consequences of the Fall: God creates human nature as one. “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). “God is simultaneously one Nature and three Hypostases; man is simultaneously one nature and many hypostases; God is consubstantial and trinitarian; man is consubstantial and multi-hypostatic."

In the Paradise planted in the East, the first people were allowed to eat the fruits of all trees except one: “You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17) . The meaning of the commandment established by the Creator is seen in the fact that without it development and perfection were impossible. “The tree of knowledge was supposed to serve as some test and temptation for man and an exercise in his obedience and disobedience.”

And so the devil, taking the form of a serpent, seduces the first people, instilling in them doubt in God, promising good (“you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5)) outside the Source of all good. After all, in essence, the Lord created man so that he would become a god by grace, sharing with Him the joy of being. Archimandrite George (Kapsanis) speaks about it this way: “Adam and Eve were deceived by the devil and wanted to become gods - only not with God’s assistance, not through obedience with love, but relying on their own strength and will, selfishly and autonomously. In other words, the fall was based on the self. Agreeing with self-sufficiency, the first parents separated themselves from God and, instead of deification, found the opposite of it: spiritual death.”

“The beginning of pride is the removal of a person from the Lord and the retreat of his heart from his Creator; for the beginning of sin is pride” (Sir. 10, 14-15). Eve and Adam accept a sinful thought and eat the forbidden fruit. “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:7). The bliss of the first people consisted in communion with God, having lost this through sin, they were deprived of life-giving divine grace. A mind darkened by sin forced Adam and Eve to hide from the Omniscient and Omnipresent Lord in the bushes. God called for repentance, wanting through it to return the first people to their previous state. However, self-justification did not allow them to repent: Adam blamed his wife (“whom You gave me” (Gen. 3:12)), and Eve blamed the serpent. This is where a catastrophe on a universal scale occurs, a complete retreat, a final severance of communication with the Creator. Actually, this was the fall of the first people; everything else can only be considered a consequence of the loss of the grace-filled thread of communication with God.

After the empty attempts of the first parents to justify themselves, God pronounces curses, starting with the devil. “You will walk on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:14) - in all subsequent times, dark spirits began to live with human passions and vices, as if feeding on them. For Eve, and in her person and for the entire female race, God predicts sorrows associated with childbirth and dependence on her husband, and for Adam the hardships of existence on earth and death. The consequences of the Fall extend not only to humanity, but to the entire cosmos. “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Gen. 3:17). Natural disasters appeared, natural disasters appeared, the animal world became hostile towards people.

Expelling Adam and Eve from Paradise, God clothes them in leather garments, which signify the roughness and sensuality of the flesh. As stated above, humans were created in a body, but this body was passionless and immortal. We can judge its properties by the risen Savior, Who passed through closed doors and, at the same time, ate fish and honey.

The Fall disrupted all the harmony in man, the flesh began to dominate the spirit, sickness and death, the mind became darkened, the will weakened and began to be easily inclined to sin, feelings were perverted. “Adam’s soul died,” says Saint Gregory Palamas, “having been separated from God by disobedience: for he lived in body after that (after his fall) until nine hundred and thirty years. But death, which befalls the soul due to disobedience, not only makes the soul obscene and brings a curse on a person, but also the body itself, subjecting it to many infirmities, many ailments and corruption, and finally puts it to death.” Through sin, man lost his likeness to God, but retained the image of God within himself. Every born baby already contains within itself a hereditary defect of nature, the seed of sin. As the child grows, the seed begins to grow, giving rise to a bushy tree of human passions. At the heart of this entire tree is selfishness, selfishness, which gives three trunks: voluptuousness as an inclination to sensual pleasures, love of money, or self-interest as an addiction to perishable things, and love of glory as a vain search for earthly, human glory. From these three trunks grow many sin branches. At their core, all passions are perverted virtues. The devil cannot create anything new, but only spoil and pervert. “Passions are the name given to human properties in their painful state produced by the fall. Thus, the ability to eat turns into a tendency to overeat and indulge in delicacies; the power of desire is in whim and lust; the power of anger or mental energy - into temper, rage, anger, hatred; the ability to grieve and be sad - into cowardice, despondency and despair; it is a natural property to despise sin that degrades one’s nature - into contempt for one’s neighbors, into pride, and so on,” says Abba Isaiah.

For people, death began to act, on the one hand, as a tragedy, an unnatural state for humans, and on the other hand, as a bridle restraining evil. “And the Lord God said... now lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22). God in the Old Testament, in order to stop the wickedness of the human race, shortened life expectancy. So the prophet David exclaims: “The days of our years are seventy years, and with greater strength - eighty years; and their best time is labor and illness, for they pass quickly, and we fly” (Ps. 89:10). The Holy Fathers call the memory of death an important work in the matter of salvation. We can say that the good Providence of God turns the consequences of the Fall to the benefit of man. As priest Oleg Davydenkov writes, “God creates conditions of existence for a sinner that are most appropriate to his spiritual and moral state, conditions that set a limit to the development of evil in fallen human nature.”

God expels people from Paradise, a Cherub with a fiery sword blocks their way back. However, if we take into account that Eden was on earth, a slightly different picture emerges: people still remain there on earth, but this is no longer Paradise. That is, having used his freedom for evil, a person, as it were, expels the Creator from himself and remains alone. God, who does not want the death of the sinner (cf. Eze. 33:11), has given the promise that the seed of the woman will erase the head of the serpent.

After the Fall, all human nature was damaged. The reason for this, as has been said, is the unity of human nature. Each personal sin of an individual, as well as his spiritual victory, is reflected in his environment, deceased relatives and descendants. However, this does not mean that a person is to blame for the sins of his ancestors, as some believe (for example, calling for repentance for the sin of regicide); we are talking specifically about the consequences, and not about the responsibility of someone else’s evil or good. Therefore, there is suffering of innocent people in the world, including those who were not involved in such ancient events. All generations following Adam bear the consequences of his apostasy. “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

Orthodox theology distinguishes two aspects in original sin: the sin itself of disobedience to the ancestors and the state generated by this sin. Manifestations of this state in all descendants of Adam, according to St. Maximus the Confessor, are passion, corruption and mortality. Morally, through original sin one inherits the tendency to sin. “By their sin, the forefathers introduced the devil into their lives and gave him a place in the God-created and God-like nature. Thus, sin became a creative principle in their nature, unnatural and God-fighting, malicious and devil-centred,” writes the Monk Justin (Popovich).

Often, especially among young people, you can hear the saying “what is natural is not ugly.” It calls on people to live as they please, according to the elements of their fallen, unnatural state. This state is similar to the state of animals, and often surpasses it in its baseness. This worldview is based precisely on ignoring the fact of the Fall. After all, the natural state for man can only be considered the state of Adam before the fall.

Without a correct understanding of the Fall, its consequences, and original sin, a correct view of human nature is impossible, and a correct assimilation of the Church’s teaching on the Economy of Salvation is also impossible. A false view of the consequences of the Fall leads to a distortion of church teaching and, as a consequence, to a distortion of religious practice. An example is the Catholic and Protestant understanding of original sin. The first reduces original sin only to the loss of grace, which did not affect nature itself. Protestant theology, on the contrary, is that ancestral “sin destroyed in him the nature created by God and, instead of the image of God, put into him the image of the devil.”

The Orthodox teaching about the Fall is established not by the human mind, but by the collective mind of the Church, the Holy Spirit, based on Divine Revelation, Holy Scripture and Tradition. It provides clear guidelines for the struggle against sin, the world, the devil and the flesh, which a Christian is called to undertake in order to assimilate the saving grace of God, brought to earth by the Savior and abiding in the Church.

Chapter 3 of Genesis is entirely devoted to the Fall and its consequences. The mythological (meaning “sacred-symbolic”) language of the ancient legend is not always understandable to contemporary people. They often talk about an apple that came from nowhere, which the wife ate - and she “tasted the fruit”; one also hears that original sin consisted of the first sexual cohabitation, which is forbidden by God, etc. Western medieval fairy tales and heresies in in relation to chapters 1-3 of the books of Genesis, they migrated to accusatory books of atheists of the 19th century. and modern jokers who make fun of things that are not even mentioned in the Bible. But the Bible contains an allegorical description of the greatest drama that happened to man at the dawn of his historical existence.

A snake suddenly appears in paradise. This image means two thoughts at once:

First, evil already existed, before and outside of man;

Secondly, the bearer of this evil, Satan, is just a creation before God, a cunning reptile.

It is noteworthy that in the entire narrative about the creation of the world and the fall of man, there is no direct mention either of the devil or of the initial fall of some of the angels who were drawn into darkness by him. Chapter 1 talks about the abyss, chapter 3 talks about the serpent. According to the Genesis Writer, the main biblical events and problems of salvation lie only on the “God - man” axis. The appearance of a serpent in the Garden of Eden is an echo of the fact that beyond the borders of paradise there is the not yet transformed, “formless” earth, the universe, and beyond its borders there is the same darkness of non-existence. The serpent is the “partisan” of the abyss in paradise. Crawling up to his wife, he cannot penetrate her soul and therefore tries to attract attention to himself: “Did God really say: do not eat from any tree in paradise?” What is typical here is a call to doubt the truth of God (is it real?) and His goodness (prevents us from tasting). Verily, the serpent tempts the wife with logic! She answers him, recalling the commandment she heard from Adam, that only the fruits of that tree should not be eaten by people, lest they die. But for the snake, who already knows all this, what is really important is that his wife managed to hear him and is talking to him. In the next phrase, he already fully reveals himself as a spirit of slander against God: “No, you will not die; but God knows that on the day that you eat of them (the fruits), your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil (i.e. everything in the world). The wife’s fall occurred already at the moment when she did not object to these words. A certain creature of God refutes God and continues to exist calmly, which means one can live like this! She begins to look at God in a new way , He is insincere, He is hiding something. But it turns out that you can also look at the world around you from a different, non-God’s point of view, and not die. And she looks at the terrible tree differently: it is “good for food, pleasant for the eyes and is desirable, because it gives knowledge." These are the very three components of original sin, which the holy Apostle John the Theologian calls “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride,” and the ascetic fathers call voluptuousness, love of money and love of glory. What does the serpent promise to man? ? - “You will be like gods.” But didn’t God set the same task for man? “I said: you are gods,” the Psalmist exclaims on behalf of the Creator. And in the New Testament the Lord says even more specifically: “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” - this is the very “likeness” to God. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, developing this thought, boldly say about Christ: “God became Man, so that man could become God.” But the devil’s deception is contained in the word “as” - “like gods.” God calls man to become “a god with God,” a son of God, a partaker of Him. And the serpent seduces with the opportunity to be “a god without God,” his own god, because man has potential power.

Thus, eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which led a person to spiritual catastrophe, means knowing the world outside of God and organizing one’s life in it without God. The spiritual tendency, in which a person strives to place himself at the center of the universe and subjugate all its spiritual and material forces, is called magism in theology. And this trend throughout subsequent history is opposed to the religious trend, in which a person, having placed God at the center of his life and sacrificially serving him, strives to restore lost intimacy (the term “religion” can be interpreted as “reunion”, renewal of unity).

The wife "took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave it to her husband, and he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and... they made aprons for themselves." And before that, “they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Adam tastes the same as his wife, because love is not yet broken, they are like undivided Siamese twins. So, they thought that they were gods, but they found out that they were naked. "Nudity" has a very specific meaning. This is a feeling of one’s own smallness, insignificance, insecurity: just a worm, just dust, just a grain of sand on the outskirts of the worlds. To become aware of one's nakedness is to lose one's sense of grace. Before the fall, man does not know about this nakedness and is not afraid, does not know about sin and is not ashamed, but fallen man is familiar with the states of shame and gracelessness. Making “belts” for yourself is a pathetic attempt to cover up “nakedness” and compensate for spiritual loss. The same is said in (3, 8): “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise during the cool of the day, the nearness of the Lord for the author, who lived in the sultry climate of Palestine, is described as a welcome coolness; and Adam and his wife hid from sight Lord God between the trees of paradise." This could be the “tree of science”, “tree of art”, etc.; This is how an attempt is expressed to drown out the ever-growing spiritual anxiety. “And the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him: Adam, where are you?” It’s amazing, it’s not the man of God, but God who seeks the man! The serpent acts brazenly, deceives, seduces, paralyzes the will of the one who promises freedom and does not retreat until he achieves his goal. The Creator, having given man life and peace, giving commandments and warning about danger, requires a trusting relationship and does not control every step of a person, and when the latter makes a mistake, he does not reproach, does not threaten, but fatherly asks: where are you, where are you going, think that you are losing. “He said: I heard Your voice in paradise, and I was afraid. The voice of God was a melody of bliss, and now it is the source of fear - this is where the specific horror of multi-armed deities appears in ancient religions, because I am naked (false repentance, is it really necessary to be afraid of this , to be ashamed), and hid himself. And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you not eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?” A direct question requires a direct answer. If Adam had said: yes, this is so, forgive me, then the story would have gone less dramatically. But the first man went through the sinful path to the end. "Adam said: The wife whom You gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." To him, as the Rev. says in one of his sermons. Simeon the New Theologian should have answered his Creator this way: “O Master, I have truly sinned, breaking your commandment. .. Have mercy on me, God, and forgive me." Adam outwardly speaks the truth, but in fact, instead of repentance, he responds with ingratitude and double accusations: the wife who seduced him - this is how marital unity collapses; God, who gave her - this is how Adam first reaches to Satanism. The wife, in response to a similar question from God, refers to the serpent: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (3, 9-14). “Oh, petrified insensibility! And you, Eve, after you agreed to talk with the serpent, preferred... the commandments of the Lord to his advice and considered it (the serpent) more true than the commandment of God!..” - the Monk Simeon exclaims sadly.

From the last scene we see that both Adam and his wife were to blame for the Fall (Adam behaved much worse in the end), and when it is said that sin entered us through his wife, it is not her particular guilt that is meant, but the mechanism of penetration of original depravity . Due to the fact that ideally “Adam and his wife” are a full-fledged person (the name Eve appears after the Fall and signifies the beginning of disunity), some commentators allegorically interpret Adam as the mind and Eve as the heart of man; That. original sin first struck the sensitive side of the soul, and then the rational side (“outside of God, the mind becomes like an animal and demons” - St. Gregory Palamas).

Generally speaking, in the Bible and Christianity, Adam is not only the first man or the first humanity. The word Adam also means “man in general,” “human genotype.” The Holy Apostle Paul contrasts the Western Christian formulation - “all sin because of Adam’s guilt” with the “genetic” view: “in him (in Adam) all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). That is, we sin “in Adam,” “together with Adam,” “like Adam.” We are all the first, or old Adam. The concept of original sin describes the general depravity of the human race, its fallenness, potential sinfulness; the Fathers of the Church call this “comfortableness to sin.” (But this complacency does not mean the fatal inevitability of committing a sin.)

The further narrative of chapter 3 concerns the curse of the serpent, the condemnation of people and their expulsion from paradise. But what is called exile is the result of the loss of paradise in the spiritual sense, which has already occurred through the fault of man. Disobedience, unrepentance and rejection of God after the Fall led to the fact that the previous life with God was destroyed. Fallen man cannot be in heaven by definition, and not because of the wrath of God.

In (3, 14-15) the Divine curse of the serpent-devil sounds before the whole world. He will crawl on his belly (evil creeps, touches base passions) and always feeds on dust (Adam is spiritualized “dust,” but the food of the devil is completely unspiritual, internally dead people). Some Church Fathers, out of an abundance of love, expressed the opinion that even demons could be saved, but apparently Lucifer, having seduced man, not only transferred the Fall to another level, not only significantly deepened the distortion of the wonderful Divine plan, but also excommunicated himself from the precarious possibility of salvation, those. turned out to be truly cursed. And further: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, ... between your seed and ... her seed; it (in the original - “He”) will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” Indeed, from now on one of the main tasks of spiritual life will be the struggle of man (the seed of the woman) with all sorts of manifestations of evil (the seed of the serpent) - a struggle to the death. Prophets and righteous people of all times will try to destroy evil (strike the serpent's head), but the devil will successfully find their weak points (cf. "Achilles' heel"). The main “fifth” will, of course, be the mortality and defenselessness of the righteous, and evil will often triumph. But one day the One who will destroy the root of evil will appear (in Slavic this sounds specifically: “the seed of the woman will erase the head of the serpent”). Such a message primarily reflects the ancient hope of humanity for salvation from the power of evil and sin. But in such obvious images (“He,” “the seed of the woman,” “he will strike the head”) the Church could not help but see the first prophecy about Jesus Christ in biblical history. It’s amazing: even before God determines the punishment of Adam and Eve for what they did in paradise, He already pronounces His first Gospel, containing the promise of inevitable salvation! But for God this means giving up the Son on the cross.

The wife's pregnancy is now sorrowful and childbirth painful;

In marriage there is inequality: the husband will dominate the wife;

Impurity and lust entered into love;

The earth (nature) is now “cursed” for man, sick, hostile to him (St. Apostle Paul says that all creation is collectively tormented because of man...);

The “robes of skin” given by God (3, 21) can speak either of a certain immunity or of the coarsening of a person due to a changed climate; labor from a blessed task becomes a painful necessity for obtaining food. The most terrible consequence of original sin is death. It is described at first simply as the cause of life's nonsense: a person, by the sweat of his brow, obtains bread growing from the earth, so that this bread, becoming part of the aging person himself, returns him to the earth from which he was (materially) formed: "earth thou art, and thou shalt return to the earth" (St. John of Damascus, from the requiem service). But verses (3:22-24) explain this topic further: “And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam has become as one of Us... and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life... and began to live forever. And the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden... and set... Cherubim and a flaming sword (revolving) to guard the way to the tree of life." So, after the Fall, physical immortality became impossible. But this, it turns out, is not the whim of the Creator (atheistic commentators here liked to speculate about God’s envy). Death is not only tragic. If a person who had once chosen evil remained immortal, then this, especially because of man’s weakness in the face of the active pressure and deception of the devil, would inevitably lead to the emergence of a totally rabid world, where people would suffer hopelessly and endlessly, i.e. to victory the depths above God's creation. Death becomes that natural limit that limits in time any evil phenomenon, which is no longer omnipotent, but for the person himself means the most important life milestone. Physical death does not mean the end of existence, but is a symbol and warning about the “second death” - spiritual. If the first death is a temporary separation of soul and body, then the second means the eternal separation of the soul and God. Death turns out to be the final argument in favor of faith and repentance. Truly, “death has been established with grace” (St. John Chrysostom).

Sins, illnesses, suffering - all these are consequences of mortality. The Fathers of the Church say that after the Fall the very nature of man changed. In particular, the actions of the mind, will and feelings, as well as body and soul among themselves, have lost their former harmonious unity. In this regard, asceticism speaks of the emergence of mental and physical passions - deep-seated painful complexes.

Purpose of the lesson – consider the biblical account of the fall of our ancestors and its consequences.

Tasks:

1. Give listeners information about the emergence of evil in the created world.
2. Consider the temptation of the first people, the essence of their fall and the changes that happened to them.
3. Consider God's conversation with people after the Fall as a sermon of repentance.
4. Consider the punishment of the first parents, the consequences of the Fall, the curse of the serpent and the promise of the Savior.
5. Consider the interpretations of leather garments presented in exegetical literature.
6. Consider the salutary value of the expulsion of the first people from paradise and the appearance of mortality.
7. Give information about the location of heaven.

Lesson plan:

1. Conduct a homework check, either by recalling together with the students the content of the material covered, or by inviting them to take a test.
2. Reveal the content of the lesson.
3. Conduct a discussion-survey based on test questions.
4. Assign homework: read chapters 4-6 of the Holy Scripture, memorize: read chapters 4-6 of the Holy Scripture, familiarize yourself with the proposed literature and sources, memorize: the promise of God about the Savior of the world (Gen. 3, 15).

Sources:

1. John Chrysostom, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/16 http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/17
2. Gregory Palamas, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Grigorij_Palama/homilia/6 (date of access: 10/27/2015).
3. Simeon the New Theologian, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Simeon_Novyj_Bogoslov/slovo/45(access date: 10/27/2015).
4. Ephraim the Syrian, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Efrem_Sirin/tolkovanie-na-knigu-bytija/3 (date of access: 10/27/2015).

Basic educational literature:

2. Egorov G., Hierarch. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Biblia/svjashennoe-pisanie-vethogo-zaveta/2#note18_return(access date: 10/27/2015).
3. Lopukhin A.P. http://www.paraklit.org/sv.otcy/Lopuhin_Bibleiskaja_istorija.htm#_Toc245117993 (access date: 10/27/2015).

Additional literature:

1. Vladimir Vasilik, deacon. http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/60583.htm(access date: 10/27/2015).

Key concepts:

• devil;
• Dennitsa;
• temptation;
• fall from grace;
• leather garments (robes);
• First Gospel, the promise of the Savior;
• Seed of the woman;
• death.

Test questions:

Illustrations:

Video materials:

1. Korepanov K. The Fall

1. The emergence of evil in the created world

In the book of the Wisdom of Solomon there is this expression: “Death entered the world through the envy of the devil”(Wis.2:24). The appearance of evil preceded the appearance of man, namely, the falling away of Dennitsa and those angels who followed him. The Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel that “the devil is a murderer from time immemorial” (John 8:44), as the holy fathers explain, because he sees a person raised by God there, and even above what he had before and from which he fell . Therefore, in the very first temptation that comes upon a person, we see the action of the devil. Revelation does not tell us how long the blissful life of the first people in paradise lasted. But this state already aroused the evil envy of the devil, who, having lost it himself, looked with hatred at the bliss of others. After the fall of the devil, envy and thirst for evil became characteristics of his being. All goodness, peace, order, innocence, obedience became hateful to him, therefore, from the very first day of man’s appearance, the devil strives to dissolve man’s grace-filled union with God and drag man along with him into eternal destruction.

2. The Fall

And so, in paradise the tempter appeared - in the form of a serpent, who "he was more cunning than all the beasts of the field"(Gen. 3:1). An evil and insidious spirit, having entered the serpent, approached the wife and said to her: “Is it true that God said: You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?”(Gen. 3:1). The serpent approaches not Adam, but Eve because, apparently, she received the commandment not directly from God, but through Adam. It must be said that what is described here has become typical of any temptation by evil. The process itself and its stages are very clearly depicted. It all starts with a question. The serpent does not come and say, “Taste of the tree,” because this is clearly evil and a clear departure from the commandment. He says: “Is it true that God forbade you to eat the fruit?” That is, he doesn’t seem to know. And in upholding the truth, Eve does a little more than she should. She says: “We can eat the fruits of the trees, only the fruits of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, do not eat them or touch them, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman: No, you will not die."(Gen.3:2-4). There was no talk of touching. The confusion is already starting. This is a common satanic trick. At first, he does not lead a person directly to evil, but always mixes a small drop of untruth with some truth. Why, by the way, should one refrain from all kinds of lies; Well, just think, I lied a little there, it’s not scary. It's actually scary. This is exactly that small drop that paves the way for a much larger lie. After this, a larger lie follows, because the serpent says: “No, you will not die, but God knows that on the day you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”(Gen.3:4-5). Here, again, the truth, but in different proportions, is mixed with untruth. Indeed, man was created to be a god. Being a creature by nature, he is called by grace to deification. Indeed, God knows that they will be like Him. They will be like God, but not like gods. The devil introduces polytheism.

Man was created to be a god. But for this, a certain path is indicated in communication and love with God. But here the serpent offers a different path. It turns out that you can become God without God, without love, without faith, through some action, through some tree, through something that is not God. All occultists are still engaged in such attempts.

Sin is lawlessness. The law of God is the law of love. And the sin of Adam and Eve is the sin of disobedience, but it is also the sin of apostasy from love. In order to tear a person away from God, the devil offers him in his heart a false image of God, and therefore an idol. And, having accepted this idol in the heart instead of God, a person falls away. The serpent represents God as deceitful and jealously defending some of His interests, His capabilities and hiding them from man.

Under the influence of the serpent’s words, the woman looked at the forbidden tree differently than before, and it seemed pleasant to her eyes, and the fruits were especially attractive due to the mysterious property of giving knowledge of good and evil and the opportunity to become a god without God. This external impression decided the outcome of the internal struggle, and the woman “ She took some of its fruit and ate it, and gave it also to her husband, and he ate it."(Gen. 3.6) .

3. Changes in Man After the Fall

The greatest revolution in the history of mankind and the whole world has taken place - people violated the commandment of God and thereby sinned. Those who were supposed to serve as the pure source and beginning of the entire human race poisoned themselves with sin and tasted the fruits of death. Having lost their purity, they saw their nakedness and made aprons for themselves from leaves. They were now afraid to appear before God, to whom they had previously strived with great joy.

4. Offer of repentance

There is no other way to restore a person other than the path of repentance. Horror seized Adam and his wife, and they hid from the Lord in the trees of paradise. But the loving Lord called Adam to Himself: « [Adam,]where are you?"(Gen.3.9). The Lord did not ask about where Adam was, but about what state he was in. With this He called Adam to repentance. But sin had already darkened man, and the calling voice of God aroused in Adam only a desire to justify himself. Adam answered the Lord with trepidation from the thicket of trees: “ I heard Your voice in paradise and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself."(Gen. 3.10) . – « Who told you that you are naked? have you not eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?"(Gen. 3.11). The question was posed directly, but the sinner was unable to answer it just as directly. He gave an evasive answer: “ The wife whom You gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate"(Gen. 3.12). Adam placed the blame on his wife and even on God Himself, who gave him this wife. Then the Lord turned to his wife: “ What did you do?“But the wife followed Adam’s example and did not admit her guilt: “ The serpent seduced me and I ate"(Gen. 3.13). The wife told the truth, but the fact that they both tried to justify themselves before the Lord was a lie. By rejecting the possibility of repentance, man made it impossible for himself to further communicate with God.

5. Punishment. Consequences of the Fall

The Lord pronounced His righteous judgment. The serpent was cursed before all the animals. He is destined for the miserable life of a reptile on his own belly and feeding on the dust of the earth. The wife is condemned to severe suffering and illness when giving birth to children. Addressing Adam, the Lord said that for his disobedience the land that feeds him would be cursed. " It will produce thorns and thistles for you... by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return."(Gen. 3.18–19).

The consequences of the Fall of the first people were catastrophic both for man and for the whole world. In sin, people distanced themselves from God and turned to the evil one, and now it is impossible for them to communicate with God as it was before. Having turned away from the Source of life - God, Adam and Eve immediately died spiritually. Physical death did not immediately strike them (by the grace of God, who wanted to bring their first parents to repentance, Adam then lived for 930 years), but at the same time, along with sin, corruption entered people: sin - the tool of the evil one - gradually became aging destroys their bodies, which ultimately led the ancestors to physical death. Sin damaged not only the body, but also the entire nature of primordial man - that original harmony was disrupted in him, when the body was subordinate to the soul, and the soul to the spirit, which was in communion with God. As soon as the first people departed from God, the human spirit, having lost all guidelines, turned to spiritual experiences, and the soul was carried away by bodily desires and gave birth to passions.

Just as harmony was disrupted in a person, so it happened throughout the world. According to Ap. Paul, after the Fall " all creation has submitted to vanity"and since then has been waiting for liberation from corruption (Rom. 8.20–21). After all, if before the Fall all nature (both the elements and animals) was subordinate to the first people and without labor on the part of man gave him food, then after the Fall man no longer feels like the king of nature. The land has become less fertile, and people need to make great efforts to provide themselves with food. Natural disasters began to threaten people's lives from all sides. And even among the animals to which Adam once gave names, predators appeared that pose a danger to both other animals and humans. It is possible that animals also began to die only after the Fall, as many holy fathers say (St. John Chrysostom, St. Simeon the New Theologian, etc.).

But not only our first parents tasted the fruits of the Fall. Having become the ancestors of all people, Adam and Eve conveyed to humanity their nature, distorted by sin. Since then, all people have become corruptible and mortal, and, most importantly, everyone has found themselves under the power of Satan, under the power of sin. Sinfulness became, as it were, a property of man, so that people could not help but sin, even if someone wanted to. Usually they say about this state that all humanity inherited from Adam original sin. Here, original sin does not mean that the personal sin of the first people was passed on to the descendants of Adam (after all, the descendants did not personally commit it), but rather that it was the sinfulness of human nature with all the ensuing consequences (corruption, death, etc.) that was passed on from the first parents to all people. .). The first people, following the devil, seemed to sow the seed of sin into human nature, and in every new person born this seed began to germinate and bear the fruits of personal sins, so that every person became a sinner.

But the merciful Lord did not leave the primitive people (and all their descendants) without consolation. He then gave them a promise that was supposed to support them in the days of subsequent trials and tribulations of a sinful life. Speaking His judgment to the snake, the Lord said: “ and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it(translated as seventy - He) he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel"(Gen. 3.15). This promise about the “seed of the Woman” is the first promise about the Savior of the world and is often called the “First Gospel”, which is not accidental, because These brief words speak prophetically of how the Lord intends to save fallen humanity. The fact that this will be a Divine action is clear from the words “ I'll put the enmity to rest“- a person weakened by sin cannot independently rebel against the slavery of the evil one, and here the intervention of God is required. At the same time, the Lord acts through the weakest part of humanity - through woman. Just as the conspiracy of the wife with the serpent led to the fall of people, so the enmity of the wife and the serpent will lead to their restoration, which mysteriously shows the most important role of the Most Holy Theotokos in our salvation. The use of the strange phrase “seed of the woman” indicates the unmarried conception of the Blessed Virgin. The use of the pronoun “He” instead of “it” in the LXX translation indicates that even before the birth of Christ, many Jews understood this place as indicating not so much the offspring of the wife as a whole, but rather a single person, the Messiah-Savior, who will crush the head of the serpent - the devil and will save people from his dominion. The serpent can only bite His “heel,” which prophetically indicates the Savior’s suffering on the Cross.

6. Leather clothes

Leather clothing, according to the interpretation of the holy fathers, is the mortality that human nature received after the fall. Smch. Methodius of Olympus emphasizes that “skin garments are not the essence of the body, but a mortal accessory.” As a result of this state of human nature, he became subject to suffering and illness, and his mode of existence changed. “In addition to foolish skin,” in the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, a person perceived: “sexual union, conception, birth, defilement, feeding from the breast, and then food and throwing it out of the body, gradual growth, adulthood, old age, illness and death.”

In addition, leather clothes became a veil separating man from the spiritual world - God and angelic forces. Free communication with them after the Fall became impossible. This protection of a person from communication with the spiritual world is apparently beneficial for him, because many descriptions of a person’s meetings with both angels and demons found in literature testify that such an overt collision of a person with the spiritual world happens to him difficult to bear. Therefore, a person is covered with such an impenetrable cover.

The literal interpretation of leather clothes is that the first sacrifice was made after the expulsion from paradise, which Adam was taught by God Himself, and these clothes were made from the skins of sacrificial animals.

7. Expulsion from Paradise

After the people were clothed in leather garments, the Lord expelled them from paradise: “ And he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned around at the east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life."(Gen. 3.24), of which they, through their sin, have now become unworthy. The person is no longer allowed to see him, “ lest he stretch out his hand, and also take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"(Gen. 3.22). The Lord does not want a person, having tasted the fruits of the tree of life, to remain eternally in sin, because the bodily immortality of a person would only confirm his spiritual death. And this shows that the bodily death of a person is not only a punishment for sin, but also a good deed of God towards people.

8. The meaning of death

It is also worth dwelling on the question of the meaning of punishment: is a person’s mortality a punishment or a benefit for the person himself? There is no doubt that it is both, but punishment not in the sense of God’s vengeful desire to do bad things to man for being disobedient, but as a kind of logical consequence of what man himself has created. That is, we can say that if a person jumped out of a window and broke his legs and arms, he is punished for this, but he himself is the author of this punishment. Since man is not original, and he cannot exist outside of communion with God, death also places a certain limit on the possibility of developing in evil.

On the other hand, death, as is known from practical experience, is a very important instructive factor for a person; often only in the face of death is he able to think about the eternal.

And thirdly, death, which was a punishment for man, was also a source of salvation for him subsequently, since through the death of the Savior man was restored, and the lost communion with God became possible for him.

9. The location of paradise

With the expulsion of people from paradise, among them, among the labors and hardships of a sinful life, the very memory of its exact location was erased over time; among different peoples we encounter the most vague legends, vaguely pointing to the east as the place of a primitive blissful state. A more precise indication is found in the Bible, but it is also so unclear to us given the current appearance of the earth that it is also impossible to determine with geographic accuracy the location of Eden, in which paradise was located. Here is the biblical instruction: “And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden, in the east. A river came out of Eden to water Paradise; and then divided into four rivers. The name of one is Pison; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and onyx stone. The name of the second river is Tikhon (Geon): it flows around the entire land of Kush. The name of the third river is Khiddekel (Tigris); it flows before Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates” (Gen. 2:8-14). From this description, first of all, it is clear that Eden is a vast country in the east, in which paradise was located, as a smaller room intended for the habitation of the first people. Then the name of the third and fourth rivers clearly indicates that this Edenic country was in some neighborhood with Mesopotamia. But this is the extent of the geographical indications that are understandable to us. The first two rivers (Pison and Tikhon) now have nothing corresponding to themselves either in geographical location or in name, and therefore they gave rise to the most arbitrary guesses and rapprochements. Some saw them as the Ganges and the Nile, others as Phasis (Rion) and Araks, originating in the hills of Armenia, others as the Syr-Darya and Amu-Darya, and so on ad infinitum. But all these guesses are not of serious significance and are based on arbitrary approximations. Further defining the geographical location of these rivers are the lands of Havilah and Cush. But the first of them is as mysterious as the river that irrigates it, and one can only guess, judging by its metal and mineral wealth, that this is some part of Arabia or India, which in ancient times served as the main sources of gold and precious stones. The name of another country, Kush, is somewhat more specific. This term in the Bible usually refers to the countries lying south of Palestine, and the “Cushites,” as the descendants of Ham, from his son Cush or Cush, are found throughout the entire space from the Persian Gulf to southern Egypt. From all this we can only conclude one thing: that Eden was indeed in some neighborhood with Mesopotamia, as indicated by the legends of all the most ancient peoples, but it is impossible to determine its exact location. Since that time, the earth's surface has undergone so many upheavals (especially during the flood) that not only could the direction of the rivers change, but their very connection with each other could be broken, or even the very existence of some of them could cease. As a result of this, science is just as blocked from accessing the exact location of paradise as it was blocked for sinner Adam from eating from the tree of life in it.

Test questions:

1. What event in the created world caused the emergence of evil?
2. Why does the devil approach his temptation not to Adam, but to his wife?
3. What was the sin of the first people?
4. What changes occurred in man after the Fall?
5. Tell us about God’s conviction of sinners and God’s offer of repentance to them.
6. What punishment does a wife receive for sin?
7. What punishment does Adam receive for sin?
8. What was the curse of the serpent and what promise did it contain?
9. How should we understand leather clothing?
10. Why are expulsion from paradise and death saving for people?
11. What can you say about the location of heaven?

Sources and literature on the topic

Sources:

1. John Chrysostom, St. Conversations on the Book of Genesis. Conversation XVI. About the fall of the primeval ones. “And the devil was both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/16. Conversation XVII. “And she heard the voice of the Lord God, going into paradise at noon” (Gen. 3:8). [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/17 (access date: 10/27/2015).
2. Gregory Palamas, St. Omilia. Omilia VI. Exhortation to Lent. It also briefly talks about the creation of the world. It was said during the first week of Lent. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Grigorij_Palama/homilia/6 (date of access: 10/27/2015).
3. Simeon the New Theologian, St. Words. Word 45. P. 2. About the crime of the commandment and expulsion from paradise. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Simeon_Novyj_Bogoslov/slovo/45 (access date: 10/27/2015).
4. Ephraim the Syrian, St. Interpretations of Holy Scripture. Genesis. Chapter 3. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Efrem_Sirin/tolkovanie-na-knigu-bytija/3 (access date: 10/27/2015).

Basic educational literature:

1. Serebryakova Yu.V., Nikulina E.N., Serebryakov N.S. Fundamentals of Orthodoxy: Textbook. - Ed. 3rd, corrected, additional - M.: PSTGU, 2014. The Fall of the Forefathers and its Consequences. The promise of the Savior.
2. Egorov G., Hierarch. Holy Scripture of the Old Testament. Part one: Legal and educational books. Lecture course. – M.: PSTGU, 2004. 136 p. Section I. The Pentateuch of Moses. Chapter 1. Beginning. 1.6. The Fall. 1.7. Consequences of the Fall. 1.8. The meaning of punishment. 1.9. The promise of salvation. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Biblia/svjashennoe-pisanie-vethogo-zaveta/2#note18_return (date of access: 10/27/2015).
3. Lopukhin A.P. Biblical history. M., 1993. III. The Fall and its consequences. The location of paradise. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://www.paraklit.org/sv.otcy/Lopuhin_Bibleiskaja_istorija.htm#_Toc245117993 (access date: 10/27/2015).

Additional literature:

1. Vladimir Vasilik, deacon. Spiritual and psychological aspects of the Fall. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/60583.htm (access date: 10/27/2015).
2. Explanatory Bible, or Commentary on all the books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: in 11 volumes / Edited by A.P. Lopukhina (vol. 1); publication of A.P.'s successors Lopukhin (vol. 2-11). St. Petersburg: Petersburg, 1904-1913. Commentary on the book of Genesis. Chapter 3.

Video materials:

1. Korepanov K. The Fall

2. Anthony of Sourozh (Bloom), Metropolitan. Conversation about the history of the Fall

3. Genesis. "The Death of the First World" Lecture 2 (chapters 1-3). Priest Oleg Stenyaev. Bible portal

4. Biblical history. Kupriyanov F.A. Lecture 1

5. Conversations on the Sixth Day. Being. Chapter 3. Victor Lega. Bible portal

6. Book of Genesis. Chapter 3. The Bible. Hieromonk Nikodim (Shmatko).

7. Genesis. Chapter 3. Andrey Solodkov. Bible portal.

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CHURCH YEAR

:: CHURCH YEAR

THE FALL

The devil was jealous of the heavenly bliss of the first people and planned to deprive them of heavenly life. To do this, he entered the serpent and hid in the branches of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And when Eve passed not far from him, the devil began to inspire her to eat fruit from the forbidden tree. He cunningly asked Eve: “Is it true that God did not allow you to eat from any tree in paradise?”

“No,” Eve answered the serpent, “we can eat fruits from all trees, only fruits from the tree that is in the middle of paradise,” God said, “do not eat or touch them, lest you die.”

But the devil began to lie in order to seduce Eve. He said: “No, you will not die; but God knows that if you taste, you yourself will be like gods, and you will know good and evil.”

The seductive, devilish speech of the serpent affected Eve. She looked at the tree and saw that the tree was pleasant to the eyes, good for food and gives knowledge; and she wanted to know good and evil. She picked fruit from the forbidden tree and ate; then she gave it to her husband, and he ate.

People succumbed to the temptation of the devil, violated the commandment or will of God - sinned, fell into sin. This is how the fall of people took place.

This first sin of Adam and Eve, or the fall of people, is called original sin, since it was this sin that later became the beginning for all subsequent sins in people.

NOTE: See the Bible in the book. "Genesis": ch. 3, 1-6.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL AND THE PROMISE OF THE SAVIOR

Chapter from the Law of God by Seraphim of Slobodsky

When the first people sinned, they felt ashamed and afraid, as happens to everyone who does wrong. They immediately noticed that they were naked. To cover their nakedness, they sewed clothes for themselves from fig tree leaves, in the form of wide belts. Instead of receiving perfection equal to God's, as they wanted, it turned out the other way around, their minds became darkened, they began to be tormented, and they lost peace of mind.

All this happened because they knew good and evil against the will of God, that is, through sin Sin changed people so much that when they heard the voice of God in paradise, they hid among the trees in fear and shame, immediately forgetting that nothing could be hidden anywhere from the omnipresent and omniscient God. So every sin removes people from God. But God, in His mercy, began to call them to repentance, that is, so that people understand their sin, confess it to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. The Lord asked: “Adam, where are you?” Adam answered: “I heard your voice in paradise and was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid.” God asked again: “Who told you that you were naked? Did you not eat fruit from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?” But Adam said: “The wife you gave me, she gave me fruit and I ate it.” . So Adam began to blame Eve and even God himself, who gave him a wife. And the Lord said to Eve: “What have you done?” But Eve, instead of repenting, answered: “The serpent tempted me, and I ate.” Then the Lord announced the consequences sin they committed. God said to Eve: " You will give birth to children in illness and must obey your husband". Adam said: "Because of your sin, the earth will not be fruitful as before. She will produce thorns and thistles for you. By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread, “that is, you will earn your living through hard labor,” until you return to the land from which you were taken"that is, until you die." For you are dust and to dust you will return". And to the devil, who was hiding in the snake, the main culprit of human sin, he said: " damn you for doing this"... And he said that there would be a struggle between him and people, in which people would remain winners, namely: " The seed of the woman will cut off your head, and you will bruise his heel.", that is, it will come from the wife Descendant - Savior of the World Who will be born of a virgin will defeat the devil and save people, but for this he himself will have to suffer. People accepted this promise or promise of God about the coming of the Savior with faith and joy, because it gave them great consolation. And so that people would not forget this promise of God, God taught people to bring victims. To do this, He commanded to slaughter a calf, lamb or goat and burn them with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins and with faith in the future Savior. Such a sacrifice was a pre-image or prototype of the Savior, Who had to suffer and shed His blood for our sins, that is, with His most pure blood, wash our souls from sin and make them pure, holy, again worthy of heaven. Right there, in paradise, the first sacrifice for the sin of people was made. And God made Adam and Eve clothes from animal skins and clothed them. But since people became sinners, they could no longer live in paradise, and the Lord expelled them from paradise. And the Lord placed a cherub angel with a fiery sword at the entrance to paradise to guard the path to the tree of life. The original sin of Adam and Eve with all its consequences, through natural birth, passed on to all their offspring, that is, to all of humanity - to all of us. That is why we are born sinners and are subject to all the consequences of sin: sorrows, illnesses and death. So, the consequences of the Fall turned out to be enormous and grave. People have lost their heavenly blissful life. The world, darkened by sin, has changed: from then on the earth began to produce crops with difficulty; in the fields, along with good fruits, weeds began to grow; animals began to fear humans, became wild and predatory. Disease, suffering and death appeared. But, most importantly, people, through their sinfulness, lost immediate and direct communication with God, He no longer appeared to them in a visible way, as in paradise, that is, people’s prayer became imperfect. NOTE: see the Bible in the book. "Genesis": ch. 3 , 7-24.

Read a verbatim summary (audio transcript) of Professor A. I. Osipov’s lecture.
(5th year MDS, November 5, 2012) Download mp3 from the official website

12. About the Fall of Man

Spirituality of Man Before the Fall.

Man in his primordial state was not infected with passions. Nothing arose in his soul that would contradict the will of God, contradict his nature, God-created nature, God-like. He was the image of God, pure, unsullied by sin. This is the first.

Second. He was not just a soul, but a soul and a body. His very body and flesh were spiritual. What does it mean? Before the Fall of man, not only the soul, but also the body itself was spiritual. What is the spiritual body? A non-spiritual body cannot walk on water - it will drown right away. Remember, Peter tried, poor thing, - and then, - Ay, God save me, I’m drowning! But we know from the history of the Church that there were many such cases: the same Mary of Egypt crossed the Jordan, for example. For Christ, when He resurrected, there were no barriers. The spiritual body has properties that we do not have now, since everything with us is sinful.

So, before the Fall, the first people had a spiritual body, not just a soul. Ephraim the Syrian writes: “Their robes are light, their faces are radiance. Judging by the name of paradise, one might think that it is earthly, but in its power it is spiritual and pure. And the spirits have the same names, but the Holy [spirit] is different from the unclean. The heavenly fragrance satisfies without bread, the breath of life serves as drink. Bodies containing blood and moisture there attain a purity equal to that of the soul itself. There the flesh rises to the level of souls, the soul rises to the level of spirit. They were not ashamed because they were clothed with glory - heavenly clothing. God did not make man mortal, but he did not create him immortal either.”

We can observe the primordial state of man by the state of the flesh of the risen Christ. This is precisely the state in which primordial man was.

The Necessity of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Why did God plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The father will not leave matches for the child in the house, especially knowing that the child, of course, will take these matches and begin to set fire to everything. What is it here? God planted a tree whose fruit He knew.

Firstly, it is quite understandable that the father hides the matches; he would never have brought these matches home if he did not need them. God specially planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Secondly, he warned the person. Thirdly, God knew perfectly well that the fruit would be plucked. He knew, he planted it, he warned – that is, the situation is completely different. These are not matches, this is something else. What is this different?

Speaking about the first man, it must be said that the first man, before the Fall, not only did not know what evil was, but also did not know what good was. When is goodness assessed? Only when we see what evil is. There is a wise thought: what we have, we don’t keep; when we lose it, we cry. Only when we have lost do we cry and understand what good we had, what good we had. A healthy person looks at a sick person and cannot understand anything. The young man looks at the old man - how can it be possible to walk like this, bent over, and even with sticks in his hands, and even just barely, and hurting everyone in the world - nothing is clear how this can be.

This is a psychological moment that is present in a person: without knowing evil, we cannot appreciate good, or even understand that it is good. A healthy person cannot understand what a disease is if he has never been sick. So here, the first people did not know what good was, because they did not know what evil was. They found out only later.

So, God planted this tree on purpose. That is, this tree had a direct positive meaning for humans. Which one? A person has sinned - so what? Expelled from paradise, and this terrible history of mankind began. What is the positive value? Without knowing evil, we cannot appreciate good - this is the key to understanding this fact. Man was called to a godlike state, but in order to receive this state, or rather, to appreciate this state, he must know who he is, on his own, without God.

Remember, having eaten the fruit, you hid from God. God himself walks around paradise: “Adam, where are you?” These images are very beautiful, wonderful, they express the essence! "Adam, where are you?" - hid from God, just as we hide from God, from our conscience, when we violate what our conscience directly speaks of, directly protests.

Man didn’t even imagine, didn’t know, and couldn’t know who he was without God’s help. Human nature was in direct, closest communication with God. Not by external communication, but by spiritual communication, a person is permeated with this spiritual spirit. Man, it turns out, was already by nature, to some extent already God-human, such is his nature, then his nature could be normal, not having death, not having any undue deviations, being in this spiritual unity with God. It was natural human condition.

This tree, this eating of the fruit, revealed to man, firstly, what evil is. Evil is being outside of God, without God. God is being. And suddenly the person fell out of the sphere of this existence. Of course, he didn’t fall out completely, but he lost his spiritual involvement with God.

As a result of the Fall, man fell out of the atmosphere of God's spiritual influence. To what extent did it fall out? The Holy Fathers say that this is not about the fact that he completely lost his free will - no. He didn't lose his freedom. The image of God remained in man, but his mind, his will, his feelings, his body turned out to be distorted. All these parameters turned out to be distorted and damaged. And we see this damage constantly, at every step: how can we run after miracles and forget about what is going on in our souls.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not the matches of the father, but a means through which only man, having known evil, having learned what it is, that is, having known who he is, departed from God, understood it, seen it, realized it, voluntarily, freely , turn to God. Without knowing the bitter, you cannot appreciate the sweet. The man was free, God warned him: look, you will die. And no violence, no violation of free will: look, man. He freely chose this path. Also freely, without the slightest violence on the part of God, he was called, having understood the misfortune of his condition, to turn to Him.

The meaning of a person’s entire earthly life from first to last is nothing more than the knowledge of evil and good. Through the knowledge of evil, the knowledge of good, by good meaning the need for unity with God, with the source of all good.

We, possessing freedom and reason, it turns out, we cannot, without getting burned on milk, not blow on the water. Do you know who we are? There are some by nature, they die as children. They will apparently be able to take advantage of the experience of other people and accept the good of the Kingdom of God that is promised to every person, without harm to themselves.

The pride of the first people is the root of original sin

If we were now given all the blessings of the Kingdom of God - everything, do you know what would happen? Revolution in the Kingdom of God! Which? Exactly the same as what happened to the first people. Which one? “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The Hebrew idiom “knowledge of good and evil” means knowledge of all things. Just as God knows everything - and you will know everything.

What is knowledge of everything? This means complete power, complete domination. What passion is there - the search for complete power? - pride.

We are constantly convinced with amazement, with chagrin, with indignation, with condemnation when we see that a little man, raised one step, is already beginning to crush other people under himself. And if it’s two steps, or three – oh my God! Run like fire!

This is the original root of sin that is present in us - power, domination. Knowledge of good and evil, knowledge of everything and dominion over everything - it turns out that this is what it is, what kind of sin it was. Man saw himself as the master of the entire created world. Remember, God brought everything created and man gave names to everything that exists. Is it clear what called names are? Naming names has been a sign of power since slave times.

The man saw himself as the ruler of this world and could not stand it. I saw my power, my greatness, my glory in this created world. I saw this, and, poor thing, I still didn’t know who he was without unity with God. This is what happened to the man. This is the temptation of power, domination. This is the most terrible thing that lives in us. Why do all the holy fathers unanimously, the Holy Scripture itself says: God opposes the proud.

Pride is the root. How important it is to catch this in yourself and suppress it, avoid this nastiness, your superiority. How often, when we see ourselves a little higher than others, we begin to go crazy. If only they thought - how many people are taller than me and have this, that, and that?

This is the most terrible temptation that will engulf and defeat the one we talked about - the Antichrist. He will see that there is no one else who would possess everything that he possesses: strength, power, dominion, and the creation of miracles and signs. He has no equal. Here, poor thing, I got caught, poor thing! He got caught and thought he was a god.

So that's why God planted this tree. Without the knowledge of evil and good, man could never appreciate the good that God is. Just as a healthy person does not value his health and takes it for granted, so here, without tasting evil, a person could not accept the Kingdom of God as it should, he would become proud. And even if he had stayed, if God had left him with his power, he would have become proud. This wild idea of ​​knowledge of everything and dominion over everything (I am the master, not you, I am God, and I no longer need you, God) led to a confrontation between man and God.

This is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is. This is a terrible temptation that has come into the human soul. And he succumbed to it. But why did he succumb to it? He didn't know what evil was, he didn't know who he was without God. That is why his fall from grace did not turn out to be absolutely radical, irrevocable - no. Unknowingly this happened. But this ignorance, if you like, turned out to be blessed, because through it we, Adam and everyone who finds themselves in the elements of this world, continuously learn good and evil. We continually experience it in ourselves and in others and in all of humanity. And this knowledge will ultimately give humanity the opportunity to accept God. Having seen that God is only love, there is no violence, only love and nothing more. This is how true acceptance of God and salvation will occur.

This is very important for understanding what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is and why it was planted.

Damage to human nature as a result of the Fall

What happened to human nature after the Fall? The Holy Fathers here, expressing themselves differently, say, in principle, the same thing. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is that the holy fathers even talk about damage to the image of God, about damage to nature. Other fathers say: no, nature cannot be damaged, the image of God cannot be distorted. What are we talking about here? About different ways of expressing what happened to a person. What happened to him? - this is very important.

What does patristic thought say? This was expressed especially well by St. Maximus the Confessor and a number of fathers. In this case, what is important is what all fathers agree on. The man turned out to be mortal. Before the Fall, he, being in an immortal state, was potentially capable of death. Potentially - this means that having sinned, he becomes mortal. While there, he was immortal. Having sinned, he becomes mortal.

So, the first and most difficult thing: a person becomes mortal. Maximus the Confessor says: “Mortality, perishability...” By perishability we mean all the processes that occur with our body and which are obvious to everyone. We see how a person changes from childhood to old age. Look at the portraits of a cute child, a young girl, a boy, and see what happens in old age: beyond recognition. Corruption is a gradual process of dying.

The third thing that Maximus the Confessor calls is the emergence in man of so-called sinless passions, or, as elsewhere, blameless passions.

Impeccable Passions

In this case the word passion used in an etymological meaning, that is, from the word suffering. If before this a person could not even have suffering, the flesh was even spiritual, and nothing could cause him suffering, then from now on it began! Already the fear of God, already an attempt to hide from Him, they already saw that they were naked! Let's quickly get dressed! Next comes hunger, cold, and the need for food and nutrition, temperature. That is, the person found himself surrounded on all sides. And the slightest change in the conditions of his existence brings him suffering. The animal world itself rebelled against man. Man was the absolute master, here he had to defend himself and avoid.

This is impeccable passion. Blameless means not sinful. There is no sin in the fact that we feel cold, hunger, thirst. Because people want to get married, there is no sin in that.

Sin is a violation of one's nature

Sin occurs when we cross moral boundaries. And instead of eating, gluttony begins, instead of drinking, drunkenness begins. There are some reasonable needs for nature, natural needs for nature, and there is something that goes beyond these reasonable limits. In religious language this is called sin, but let us translate it into ordinary human language. It turns out that when a person crosses the boundaries of natural use, he begins to do unnatural things. What is unnatural? Nature is nature, nature is my state. It turns out that I am starting to fight against myself.

What is bingeing - what is it, you need to ask any doctors - and so we know! Drunkenness – what is it? – natural or unnatural? - punishes himself. That's what sin is.

This is very important for us now. Sin is not a violation of God's law - God gave us laws, I broke them, now wait, how many lashes will they give you: 10, 20, 40? No! Sin is an unnatural act against one’s nature, one’s nature.

Nature is my nature, I start cutting, stabbing, frying or freezing myself. Oh, how sweet this is! This, it turns out, is what the passion that has arisen is.

Passion here and in another sense. It turns out that a person’s will has weakened, he has ceased to be able not to violate the laws of his human nature. Soreness struck him. Sin is an unnatural phenomenon.

The rejection of God by the first people led to irreversible consequences

So, mortality, corruption and irreproachable passion - this is what arose in man. Moreover, irreversible processes have occurred. It started with the first couple Adam and Eve. If you want, processes have taken place, of a genetic order, irreversible.

I have to draw this image. A diver goes under the water, he has a hose through which air is supplied to him. In the Red Sea he admires the beautiful fish and swims in this oasis of beauty. And suddenly he received a command from above: Get up, that’s enough! He: it’s me, to get up from here - uh, no! He grabs the cutlass and cuts off this wire and hose. What's going on, he can't breathe now! That's it, he dies! They pulled the poor thing out, pumped him out, but irreversible processes had already occurred. He seems to be both alive and not alive, dead and you won’t understand what.

Now, irreversible processes have occurred in man. Resulting in? He cut off the wire that connected him to God. For man does not exist on his own, but he exists only in unity with God. We are now in an unnatural state. We are cut off from God, we are in the state of what happened there as a result of the Fall.

So, passion, decay and mortality have become the lot of all human existence. But, I repeat once again, not reproachful, not sinful passion. The soul by nature can be dispassionate if it does not sin. But the fact of the matter is that a person violated the moral norms, the spiritual norms of his existence, therefore, in addition to these changes - decay, passion and mortality, something else happened in him, changes of the spiritual and moral order occurred. There was a distortion of the human soul itself, which affected the mind, the heart, and the body - it affected everything.

John Chrysostom says that it was sin – Adam’s disobedience – that was the cause of general damage. Basil the Great says: “The Lord came to unite human nature, which had been torn into thousands of parts. The man has fallen into discord." Maximus the Confessor writes: “Man must learn what the law of nature is and what the tyranny of passions is. Not naturally, but randomly invading him due to his free consent. And he must preserve this law of nature, keeping it in tune with natural activity, and expel the tyranny of passions from his will and by the power of reason preserve his nature immaculate, in itself pure, untainted and free from hatred and discord.” [Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer]

So, we have looked at what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is, for what reason such a perversion of our nature happened to man, and what, ultimately, means this state in which we find ourselves. This is necessary in order to understand what Christ did.

To understand what Christ did, we turn to the question of the Incarnation. After all, He came to save man, that is, human nature. What could God do with man? After all, to sin or not to sin is his freedom, and God does not concern freedom. God does not use any violence towards man in spiritual and moral terms. This means that we may not be talking about his freedom, but about the state of nature. How a person sinned is a moral act, and changing nature is an act that in itself cannot be assessed as moral or immoral - it is simply its state.

What is sin? The Lord came to save from sin. But God does not violate freedom. How can He save from sin? This is what I want or don’t want. I am free. Freedom remained after the Fall. What are we talking about then?

Personal sin is committed deliberately

Word sin one thing, but it has several meanings. Here are the values ​​to keep in mind. The first thing that needs to be said is about personal sin. Personal sin is entirely determined by a person’s freedom; it depends on whether to commit it or not to commit it. But here, too, not everything is so simple. If I am used to drinking, and although I know that it is a sin, I can no longer help but drink. How am I here: do I do it freely or not?

It turns out that this is the kind of situation. There is a stage of sin in which I am free. So far I am not at all attracted to wine. But I know, I see what happens to people if they start abusing. And here I can completely freely allow myself or not to drink more or less. I am free. But if I still freely surrender to this desire to drink more and more, I become a slave. And then I am no longer free. This is what is already called passion. Why is it called passion? Not only because I am irresistibly attracted to him, but also because it brings me suffering. The wine of joy begins to bring suffering. And this is certainly true, like any passion and any sin.

So, personal sin is a sin that is committed freely, consciously. And when a person does not sin freely, this is a sign that he has violated before, and therefore he is responsible for his passions. Not because now he can’t, but because before, when he could, he didn’t do anything.

On discerning the severity of personal sins

So, this is the first and very important characteristic - personal sin. Moreover, this personal sin, again, can be purely personal. I judge someone inside myself, I envy someone - no one sees it. I am becoming greedy inside myself, no one can see this yet. This is one sin, one category, one level.

This same sin becomes immeasurably more serious when I commit it publicly, when I infect others. Christ spoke about this with such force that it becomes scary. It is better for such a person who seduces another or others to have a millstone hung around his neck and drowned in the depths of the sea. Wow, what a burden! It’s one thing when I sin within myself, and it’s quite another thing when I involve other people in this sin.

Now you understand how much the responsibility of each person increases when he reaches a higher level of social, political, church life, when he becomes a priest, bishop, and so on. How much responsibility increases! It’s not for nothing that they say: “Look, priest, and look how he behaves! Or the bishop, and how he behaves!” It seems, on the one hand, so what, what’s your business, he’s the same person. In fact, we feel in our gut that what is being committed here is not just a personal sin, but a personal sin here, but squared. You are already seducing many others! This causes severe wounds to many people.

Therefore, you see, personal sin turns out to have different levels. But not only in this direction, but also in another. The same sin that I commit in myself can have different degrees of severity. I can judge in different ways. I have dislike for some people, and anger for others.

Also in external terms. I can deceive just like that, in a trivial way. Saw? - Saw. But in fact, I didn’t see it – it’s a trifle. But I can deceive you in such a way that I lead a person into a terrible storm of life, into a real tragedy. I can let a person down so that I don’t know what will happen to him, having deceived him. Promising and not delivering. And there is only one sin - deceiving.

“Father, I cheated.” “You cheated?!” And a man committed suicide because of you!” Wow, he was “deceiving”! This, my dear, was not just deceiving. You see how different the degree of sin in a person can be. One and the same, but what's the difference? - colossal.

So, personal sins can vary in severity. Then, “public” sins can be very dangerous: I offend many. Church sins, when a person staying in the church violates those rules of life and seduces not only someone outside, but can even damage the church itself. Look, there's a split. When a few people imagine themselves above everyone else and go against everyone, declaring that they understand Orthodoxy better than everyone else. This is what concerns personal sins.

The Holy Fathers have very important, interesting thoughts on this issue. I just want to say that personal sin is the source of other sins that are not sin. How do you like it? This is what the situation is like. I already told you that there is only one word - sin, but what is hidden behind it is something else. So, when I said that it is not a sin, then what are we talking about?

Original sin

Firstly, about the so-called original sin. Not the ancestral sin, that is, the one that the ancestors committed when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but about what befell all of humanity, starting with these first people. So, here original sin is called sin. What it is? This is damage to human nature. This is called sin, but what kind? - not a sin for us, we are born with it, we are not guilty of this, we have nothing to do with it. But this original sin was the result of what? - Adam's personal sin.