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not interfere with free will. Some
Christians reconcile this conundrum
by believing that God limits
his omniscience to preserve
humankind’s dignity and freedom.Original sin
According to Christian doctrine,
the consequence of Adam and
Eve’s disobedience is that all
humans are born sinful, with an
inborn tendency to succumb to
temptation and disobey God. While
God is blameless, people are
damned, deserve to suffer, and
require salvation. Known as
Original Sin (or ancestral sin), this
doctrine was set out by Paul the
Apostle, in Romans 5:12: “Sin came
into the world through one man[Adam], and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men
because all sinned.” In the 5th
century, St. Augustine (354–430 ce)
developed Paul’s doctrine further,
saying that spiritual weakness was
inherited via “concupiscence,” or
sexual intercourse, which deprives
people of self-control.THE FALL
A cherub drives Adam and Eve
from the Garden of Eden with “a
flaming sword flashing back and
forth to guard the way to the Tree
of Life” (Genesis 3:24).The Augustinian view of Original
Sin was formally adopted by the
Roman Catholic Church during the
16th century. The doctrine was
also popular among Protestant
reformers, such as Martin Luther
and John Calvin. They equated it
with perpetual human longing for
fleshly pursuits that persist evenJudaism and sin
The doctrine of Original Sin
became a central tenet of
Christianity but this concept
is rejected by Judaism. Instead,
Jews believe that we are born
pure rather than tainted by the
sins of our ancestors. They think
Adam is not to blame for the
wrongdoing of his descendants.
We commit sin (het in Hebrew,
meaning “something that goes
astray”) because we are not
perfect beings. We must accept
that we all transgress at somepoint in our lives. Because we
have free will (behirah), we are
naturally frail and likely to give
way to our sinful inclinations
(yetzer). Not all sins are
committed deliberately, but
those that are will be punished,
either here on Earth or later,
after death.
The many Old Testament
stories concerning the nation
of Israel and its sins look at the
nature of human beings,
the meaning of sin, and the
potential for the forgiveness
of those sins.US_030-035_The_Fall.indd 34 21/09/17 11:25 am