THE TRAGIC FALL INTO EXILE
The consequences of Adam’s sin are tragic, affecting us in three ways: physical corruption, moral corruption, and inherited debt. This three-part fall spreads by natural law, not any miraculous effort by God.
First, we are physically corrupted. In Adam’s sin, we all lost a chance at immortality. When Adam was exiled from the Garden, he lost access to the tree of life, and so did everyone else across the globe.
Second, we were all morally corrupted, doomed to sin in the same ways he sinned. This moral corruption is reflected in how civilization rises. We used the power of knowledge to dominate one another instead of creating a good and just society. None of this was inevitable. It could have been another way.
Third, we all inherit a debt of unjustified mercy from our ancestors. Even before we personally participate in the sin of this world, we still cannot justify God’s mercy on our ancestors.
The three parts of the Fall might amplify and reinforce each other. For example, exile from God’s presence might explain how, in part, our nature is corrupted. Exile might be how a just God, by nature, extends his mercy. Perhaps exile distances God from us because he does not want to participate in our transgression (Gen 3:22), but this comes with a side effect: distance from him also twists our nature toward corruption. In this reading, a just God mercifully substitutes execution with exile, but the distance from God and his community corrupts Adam and his offspring further. God does not author our corrupted nature. Corruption, instead, arises as the natural consequence of the exile from the Garden and our creaturely dependence on the Creator.
The corruption of our nature might, in turn, explain why we all were excluded from the Garden, not just Adam and Eve. God could have exiled only Adam, but the narrative indicates that the way back in was closed off to all of us. As Adam and Eve’s lineage mixed and spread with others across the globe, like yeast spreading through bread, all humankind fell into his fallen federal headship. As his way of building society spread, perhaps God prevented the extent of its evil by denying all of us a chance at immortality.
Exile becomes an overarching framework by which to understand the Fall. This exposition of the Fall complements a representative and federal headship theology of original sin. Natural descent from Adam is a causal explanation of why and how Adam comes to represent us as our federal head. This explanation remains coherent, with or without those outside the Garden who mix with Adam and Eve’s lineage.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JUSTICE, MERCY, AND ANCESTRY
AN IMPORTANT QUESTION ARISES. Genealogical ancestors are not usually genetic ancestors. In what way, then, could genealogical relationships nonetheless be theologically meaningful for doctrines like the Fall and original sin?1
There is much to consider here. Speaking to us from 1888, Henry Kendall’s theological reflections on genealogical ancestry merit further study.2 Recent universal ancestry, he argued, disproved polygenesis. Genealogical ancestry added “awful significance” to the doctrine of “depravity.” Moreover, he argued we are all equal heirs of our ancestors, so it was a “great and grievous wrong” that inherited wealth was hoarded by a few. Kendall might be a fertile conversation partner, perhaps with theological insight ripe for rediscovery or refinement.
Here, however, I offer a proposal for genealogically imputed debt from Adam’s sin. This understands genealogical relationships as a causal connection to our ancestors, in endowing us with our existence.3 Whether or not this specific proposal is valid, the causality of ancestry may be useful in theological thinking.
1. In Genesis we see a recurring pattern of God extending unjustified mercy by substituting execution for exile.
2. The puzzle of original sin is to make sense of several disparate facts in theology.
3. Intrinsic to our nature as reproducing beings, we are caused by our ancestors, and we inherit our world from them.
4. Our ancestors were exiled instead of executed. For this reason, we owe our existence to God’s act of unjustified mercy toward them.
This proposal is grounded in the narrative of Scripture, in the tensions between justice, mercy, and inheritance. If God had justly executed Adam after he sinned, none of us would exist;4 instead, God sends Adam into exile. For this reason, we all exist because of an unjustified act of divine mercy. This places a question over all of us that descend from Adam: How will we justify God’s grace, which allowed us to exist? This is the debt we inherit by genealogical descent from Adam.
This specific proposal is tentative and dispensable. If it has irrecoverable problems, the importance of genealogical descent might be understood in other ways. There are at least three alternative approaches, which I will note at the end of this chapter.
THE NARRATIVE OF EXILE
The doctrine of original sin is usually grounded in Romans 5:12-14. I take a different approach here, by focusing first on the Genesis narrative itself. I will make specific interpretive moves. Some of these moves are up for debate, but they give me a way to understand the Fall from Genesis itself, without having to start from Romans. The first element I emphasize is the consequences for eating of the tree. God commands Adam,
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. (Gen 2:16-17)
This translation softens the command, removing the reference to “day.” The Revised Standard Version gives a more literal translation by rendering the final clause “for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” This warning of death for eating of the tree is both repeated and denied by the Serpent:
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. (Gen 3:2-4)
Adam and Eve go on to eat of the forbidden tree. Adam and Eve, however, do not die “the day they eat of it.” In this reading, we understand “death” this “very day” as immediate physical death.5 The just sentence for breaking God’s law was execution. Note what happens after Adam and Eve’s sin is discovered.
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Gen 3:22-23)
This could be read as an ad hoc solution to an unexpected problem, as if the original punishment was execution, but God exiles them instead. God shows Adam and Eve mercy. They were condemned to die, but instead of executing them, God extended mercy to them by exiling them from the Garden. A punishment linked to a blessing, this cuts them off from the immortality of the tree of life, but still grants them a long life in exile. The juxtaposed narrative of Cain and Abel repeats this pattern. Cain murders his brother Abel. God responds by exiling Cain:
The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” (Gen 4:10-12)
Abel’s blood “cries out” to God for justice, contrasted with the blood of Jesus, which speaks a “better word” (Heb 12:24). Everyone wants Cain dead for his actions, which requires God to place a mark on Cain to protect him. The Genesis narrative reminds us later that murder will result in a death penalty (Gen 9:6). Cain clearly deserved death, but he was exiled instead, where his lineage thrives. A punishment linked to a blessing.
In both narratives, Adam and Cain, God immediately aids the transgressors. Adam and Eve are given knowledge of leather and of farming (Gen 3:17-24), and the hope of eventual end
to the serpent. Cain is given a mark to protect him from those that would bring him to justice (Gen 4:15). Though cursed, they all live long lives, full of years (Gen 5). The generosity of God in the midst of their sin contrasts sharply with the juxtaposed themes of death, punishment, and justice in the narrative. This makes sense if God was showing them mercy by exiling them instead of execution. Notably, God’s mercy is left unjustified in the narrative. God gives no explanation for why mercy is given to Adam and Cain instead of justice. Abel’s blood cries for justice, but no explanation is given for why his cries are left unsatisfied.
The narrative of exile repeats over and over again. In Genesis, the descendants of Abraham find themselves displaced in Egypt. In the Pentateuch, they wander for a generation in the desert, still displaced from the Promised Land. In the historical books of the Old Testament, we find that their return home is temporary, and troubled. We discover from the prophet’s lament that they are exiled again to Babylon. The Genesis narrative situates the mourning of the prophets and the hope of the exiles. The mourning prophet Jeremiah heralds exile as God’s mercy:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer 29:11)
A punishment linked to a blessing. Their true home was lost because of the sin of their ancestors. Instead of destroying them completely, God preserves and blesses their offspring through exile. Returned again by Ezra and Nehemiah, they are occupied by the Romans when Jesus enters the story. Exile, occupation, and displacement because of the sins of ancestors are the emotional and existential reality grappled with by the narratives of Scripture.
THE PUZZLE OF ORIGINAL SIN
With the narrative of exile in mind, we can think more carefully about how genealogical descent might be important. First, however, I want to lay out more of the puzzle pieces. Original sin is a doctrine that attempts to bring coherence to a wide range of otherwise disparate facts. In this sense, it can be understood as a solution to a theological puzzle. With genealogical ancestry in mind, we might find a better way to fit the pieces together.
The Western church has emphasized original sin as guilt, while the Eastern church has emphasized it as moral and physical corruption.6 Many theological traditions have held that by natural descent these things somehow pass to us. There are several important pieces to the puzzle.
1. God does not author evil. Without implicating God, how does original sin come to apply to all humankind? In the Westminster Confession, for example, why does original sin impute to all the natural descendants of Adam and Eve? In the representative models of Adam, why does original sin impute to all those across the globe, including those with no covenantal connection to Adam?
2. Sin is defined as voluntary and knowledgeable transgression of a divine edict (Rom 5:12-14), not just any type of wrongdoing. Transgression, however, does not seem to describe an inherited conception of original sin, into which all are involuntarily conceived before voluntarily doing wrong (Ps 51:5; 2 Sam 12:14-31). Why is original sin, paradoxically, not voluntary? How does it exist before we personally choose to sin?
3. God is just and merciful, not desiring to hold us responsible for the sins of our ancestors (Jer 29:10-14; 31:27-34). So why are we affected by Adam’s sin? Why do we experience consequences for ancestral sin (2 Sam 12:14-31)? Why does God allow Adam’s actions to affect us?
4. Historically, original sin has been used to understand the Virgin Birth. This is, somehow, why Jesus is not born in original sin, but still inherits the rights to redeem humanity. Why would the rules of inheritance work this way for original sin?
The goal of theology is to find coherence in disparate facts in the narratives, so as to answer these questions. Here, understanding genealogical ancestry as a causal connection to Adam might be useful, giving us some new ways to think about this puzzle.
One attempt to solve this puzzle is offered by St. Augustine, and he also makes a natural headship proposal too. He proposes that all humanity physically resided in Adam’s body at the moment of his sin, and this is how we all committed sin “in” Adam.7 In his model, sin transmits from fathers to all children, but not from mothers to their children. This model of transmission made sense alongside certain conceptions of ancient biology, but less so now. No physical or material features, neither DNA nor epigenetics, transmits this way. While original sin was canonized, Augustine’s theory of transmission was never canonized in parts of the church. For this reason, his model for transmission of original sin should be shelved, even if a natural headship doctrine of original sin is retained. Over the centuries, several other models have been proposed. The precise nature of original sin, and its specific mechanism of transmission, remain an open question in theology.
My proposal is also natural headship, but through genealogical descent instead. To summarize this proposal, because of Adam’s sin, we inherit from him an existence that is contingent on unjustified mercy extended by God. Perhaps original sin is the first and most important example of ancestral sin, the first time one of our ancestors, Adam, knew of a divine law and transgressed it. When Adam falls, God extends mercy to him, substituting exile for execution. This act of mercy is unjustified. We are contingent, in this way, on both the sin of Adam and divine mercy extended to him.
WE ARE CAUSED BY ANCESTORS
This is deeply nonintuitive, but most our genealogical ancestors are genetic ghosts from whom we inherit no DNA. This raises an important question: How could genealogical descent be important for theological doctrines like original sin? In what way are genealogical ancestors theologically important, even if they give us no DNA? At first, it seems arbitrary. Why would original sin transmit this way? Genealogical ancestry is not genetic ancestry, which seems to disconnect genealogical transmission from anything real or meaningful. How should we, then, understand genealogical descent? How does it connect us to our ancestors in a meaningful way? Why and in what way would it transmit the debt of Adam’s sin to us?
Genealogies summarize the web of causal relationships out of which we each arise. This web of causes, at the moment of our conception, bestows on us a contingent existence. We depend on all the ancestors in our genealogy, each and every ancestor. Alter any link in our genealogy, no matter how remote, and we would no longer exist. Perhaps someone else might exist in our place, but we ourselves would not. Perhaps we would exist, but not with the same parents or possessions. Unlike biological and physical connections to our ancestors, our causal dependence on our ancestors remains undiminished each generation.
WE ARE CAUSED BY SIN AND MERCY
If we understand genealogies this way, as “the story that causes us to exist,” what is the story that brings us into the world? Genealogies are a web of interlinking casual chains, encoding every reproductive pairing and procreative event in our history.8 At some point, all our genealogies record rape or infidelity, ancestral sin on which our existence depends. This might be what David means when he writes he was conceived in sin (Ps 51:5) while he grieves the death of his son, who dies as a result of God’s judgment on his father’s infidelity and murder (2 Sam 12:14-31). We all, at some point, are the descendants of murderers and adulterers too. Imagining a world untouched by sin is, therefore, to imagine a world without us. For this reason, our very existence is tarred by sin. From our genealogy, each and every one of us inherits a sin-contingent existence.
One interpretive path through Genesis 3–4 grounds this proposal in the narrative. Even if the theological and hermeneutical moves are disputed, this path further clarifies what genealogies are, and how they could function in theology.
Adam’s sin was consequential. Why then did not God execute them and start again with a new couple? Instead, it appears God shows Adam mercy. Rather than executing him, God exiles Adam from the Garden (Gen 3:22-24). The surprise of God’s mercy is accentuated by the people outside the Garden. They would become victims of Adam’s sin, yet God allowed him to
leave anyways. Adam, then, gives rise to us, appearing in all our genealogies. If God had justly executed Adam, none of us would exist. We all owe our existence to this unjustified act of divine mercy.
The juxtaposed narrative of Cain and Abel supports this interpretation (Gen 4). Cain murders Abel and deserves death for his action. Everyone agrees he must die, and even Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but another act of unjustified divine mercy preserves Cain’s life. Instead of execution, God provides protection and safety: clothing and agriculture to Adam (Gen 3:17-24), and a mark of protection to Cain (Gen 4:15). Though cursed, they both live long lives, full of years (Gen 5). Remembering the ubiquity of universal ancestors, if we all descend from Adam, we all also descend from Cain. Abel, however, was murdered without offspring. We do not descend from him. If God had executed Adam, if he had executed Cain to satisfy Abel’s blood, then we all would not exist, at least not as we find ourselves now.
Consequently, we each individually owe our existence to at least one unjustified act of divine mercy. The innocent blood of Abel cries out for justice (Heb 12:24). We depend on Cain, however, so had Abel’s blood been satisfied, we would not be here any longer. In this sense, Abel’s blood cries out against Cain’s posterity too, including all of us. To grant Abel’s blood justice would mean ending us. In this sense, we inherit from our genealogies a debt we cannot pay without ending ourselves. The testimony of long-forgotten victims stands in judgment against our ancestors, and against us, asking God for justice. Inherited debt, in this way, is also a punishment linked to a blessing, the result of both God’s judgment and his mercy on Adam’s ancient sin. Our ancestors thrived in exile, so as to give us this world, but this was only possible because of God’s unjustified mercy toward their sin.
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