What Was the Fall of Man — Meaning Explained

Genesis 3 records the most consequential event in human history. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with one prohibition: 'Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die' (Genesis 2:17). The serpent (Satan) deceived Eve, questioning God's word ('Yea, hath God said?') and God's goodness ('Ye shall not surely die... ye shall be as gods,' Genesis 3:1,4-5). Eve ate and gave to Adam, who ate willingly. The consequences were immediate and far-reaching: shame (3:7), hiding from God (3:8), blame (3:12-13), cursed ground (3:17), pain in childbirth (3:16), physical death (3:19), and expulsion from Eden (3:24). Through Adam, sin entered the world: 'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned' (Romans 5:12). Yet even in judgment, God promised redemption — the 'seed of the woman' would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15), the first gospel promise pointing to Christ.