The First Sin
For those who have a little Biblical background, the “first sin” is pretty famous. It is also called “Adam’s Fall,” or, the Fall of humanity into sin. Adam and Eve broke the commandment of God which said,““From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16–17 NAS95)
They ate of the forbidden fruit. They broke the command of God. But was that the first sin?
As far as the text says, the command from God was given to Adam before Eve was formed from his rib. It would have been Adam’s responsibility, then, to inform Eve, in a proper, husbandly, loving and respectful way, of this divine prohibition. It seems that he did, because when the serpent deviantly asked Eve, “Did God really say …?”, she quoted the commandment almost verbatim. Almost.
She corrected the serpent and said that they could gladly eat from every other tree, other than this particular tree - you know, the one under which she was sitting. But she didn’t say merely that they were not to eat of it. She said that they were not even to touch it. She added to the commandment. That could have been the first sin.
But maybe it wasn’t her sin. Maybe it was Adam’s. Perhaps Adam wanted to impress on this fair maiden the danger and seriousness of this command, and so he decided to enhance it. Some call this “putting a hedge around it.” Religions through the ages are famous for this, setting up hedge after hedge until you can’t even remember what the original rule was. Did Adam add to the command of God? And was that really the first sin?
You might also remember that Adam was responsible for the naming of the animals. We aren’t told what goes into these names, but names in the Bible generally speak to something of the character of the person. In this case, it would be the character of the creature. Now it says in Genesis 3:1 that “the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” Was” serpent” its name? And did the word “serpent” communicate just how creepy and crafty and twisty the serpent could be? Was Eve prepared to handle this adversary? And, where was Adam?
There is significant interaction between the serpent and Eve in Genesis 3. But Adam doesn’t speak. What is he? The strong, silent type? That doesn't cut it when the world hangs in the balance. And where was he?
The text says that she took of the fruit and ate, and gave to her husband "with her,” and he ate. How “with her” was he?
If you are in the other room watching TV, are you “with her?”, that is, your wife. If you are sitting at a table together but you are engrossed in your phone, are you "with her?” If you just aren't paying attention, are you “with her?” The Bible says that Adam was “with her,” but I’m not sure it indicates how “with her” he was.
I think the first sin may have happened when Adam didn’t tend to the store, or to his wife; when he failed to “guard the garden” as he was charged to do.
Why is this important? Because I believe that most of our acknowledged sins are preceded by other sins that we fail to recognize. The first sin may not be succumbing to temptation. It may be playing in temptation’s nest. It may be failing to pray “deliver us from evil.” The first sin may be, perhaps like Adam, in taking a casual attitude to this feature of the Christian life called obedience.