Abstract: Genesis 3:1–6 recounts the first human sins:
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only the tree [of knowledge of good and evil] in the middle that God said, ‘You shall not eat of it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of the fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Hugh accepts the traditional interpretation of this passage, in which the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, live in the Garden of Eden, where they are permitted to eat the fruit of all the trees growing there except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Like the serpent Satan, Adam and Eve are intelligent creatures possessing reason and volition. Presumably, Hugh thinks that after Satan and the other rebel angels sinned through an inordinate desire for justice, Satan persuades the first humans to sin through the same kind of inordinate desire.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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