Your Question: What is your take on Original Sin or the state of sinfulness of human beings?

My answer in a class discussion post

Question: What is your take on Original Sin or the state of sinfulness of human beings? 

My Thoughts: The idea of "Original Sin" is totally foreign to the biblical authors worldview, up to and including Paul. 

Some rabbis, thinking Augustine got Paul right, have argued that Paul twisted Torah to say there was such an idea.[1] However, Stewart makes a decent case for defending that while the idea is completely foreign to the Hebrew Bible, it was developed in Second Temple Judaism.[2]

This begs way too many questions for a discussion post, I will try to be brief (not my strong suite, ha ha).

 

What is the biblical original of evil?

Heiser has made the case in his books and podcasts that the biblical authors would not describe the original of evil as a single event between God and Adam in Genesis three.[3] Rather, Genesis 1-11 operates as the prologue of Torah and Tanakh (and therefore the B’rit Chadashah/ New Testament).

In this prologue, there are various portraits and narratives that culminate in three major rebellions (and several minor ones). In all three archetype rebellions, there are Human and Elohim rebels present.

In all three narrative archetypes, "death" is shown as exile. Exile = Death. Physical death in later authors becomes the ultimate exile. 

1. The Nachash (serpent) is a word that calls on divine origins, not simply a talking snake. Original readers would not simply see a snake, but a divine throne guardian operating in a serpent like manner. It is the partnership of Human (adam), Life (eve), and HaNachash (diviner or communicator for God, Shiny One, Serpent)[4] that leads to the exile of Human from the garden (human/divine joint space).
2. The sin of the Watchers - The elohim intermingle with humankind and create hybrid offspring. They are also depicted as teaching humankind to war and kill. The story of the hybrid Nephilim is a callback to various Mesopotamian and Babylonian mythologies of the Apkallus. Long story there, but many Hebrew Bible texts make more sense once we have that history in our brains.
3. The Rebellion at Babylon – For some reason, various English interpreters insist on translating Gen 11 as Babel, but it is the same Hebrew word for Babylon elsewhere, and that is intentional. This is a call back to Babylon’s history including the Apkallus from #2. Babylon considered themselves to have been founded by demigods who were mighty kings and warriors. The Tower of Babel isn’t just a tower, it’s a Ziggurat (worship temple) intended to bring the elohim (gods) and humankind together. This is a rejection of Yahweh. Thus, he divorces the nations, turns them over to the rebel elohim, and starts over with Abraham (See also Psalm 82, Psalm 89, etc.).

Genesis 12 is where the story really starts after this prologue. All human evil, throughout the biblical authors, including Paul, is brought back to the elohim + humankind tendency toward rebellion, and culturally toward using empire to break human relationships. It is the human tendency to partner with or be deceived by these rebel elohim that leads to so much evil. This is seen individually but also at a macro level by comparing God's rule and reign in contrast to "empire" where Babylon and Egypt become archetypes of human + elohim evil inflicted on other humans.

Sin is humans inspired by evil spirits in rebellion against God’s ways, resulting in broken relationship with God and fellow humans. Jesus defeats the rebel "powers" and The Church begins the mission of calling the divorced nations back to Yahweh, and taking dominion back from the rebel elohim's nations.

 

What is sin and what is Paul talking about?

Paul is working through why there is no distinction between different humans in regards to Jesus’ redemption, and he says, “For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift…” (Rom 3:22-23). Thus, Paul’s statement is about there being no distinction between Jew and Gentile, because all have fallen short. Indeed, throughout the Hebrew Bible (Paul’s Scriptures), we see instance after instance of humankind being given the chance to rise up and failing in their relationship with God and/or their fellow human imagers. Paul goes on to expand on this by discussing the history of Abram (Abraham) and how he was considered to have faith and be loyal to Yahweh long before he received circumcision or any outward signs of covenant. Again, this is a Jew vs Gentile discussion.

It’s important to note that Paul says, “until the law, sin was in the world but sin is not charged to one’s account” – So he is not saying that people are guilty before an arbitrary set of sky rules, which is how many Christian traditions have ended up talking about “sin”. This reminds me of the US-American context of the 20^th century, where it was a “sin” to wear makeup, go to the movies, smoke a cigarette, or other behaviors the community deemed untoward but have no biblical prohibition. Sin is often referred to as though it were about arbitrary behavior modification; rather, than about right-relationships, which is the biblical concern.

Following the Hebrew Bible authors use of words like sin, death, and exile interchangeably, Paul draws on the example of Human (adam) showing that death entered the world through one man and therefore one man can solve the problem.

What death? The death of exile from God’s presence. What is the answer then? God-With-Us, Emmanuel, came down in human form and restored us to right relationship with God and each other.

The entire argument is messier and muddier and more full of analogies than clean systems of theology are capable of nuancing. The ancient Israelite authors of the Hebrew Bible (and thus the Jewish authors of the New Testament) worked primarily through euphemism, analogy, metaphor, poetic license, hyperbole, and other literary devices to pain multiple portraits of the human condition from multiple angles.

• The biblical narrative is not about Perfection > Fall > Redemption. That’s a foreign concept to the biblical authors’ worldview.

• The biblical narrative is about Seed > Failure to Thrive/Grow into the Desired Outcome > Continued Progress Toward the Outcome (Hebrew Bible) > Renewed Covenant and Re-Empowered Re-Invigorated Mission aka New Creation / New Life (New Test) > And someday, on The Day of the Lord, a final and firm redemption and renewal in New Creation.

The narrative isn't about a fall, but a seed, failure, and progressive work on that seed.

The narrative is that God started a project to join God’s space with Human space, all humans fail in the process of that relationship, and God is continuing to work to see that initial seed of an idea come to fruition.

There was no fall or “original sin”, because there was no perfection to fall from. There was a seed, Human (adam) failed to finish the project, and all humans since have lived with that failure (narratively). God worked and continues to work on this human + God project, and he has initiated a new higher phase in Jesus, and he has an ultimate phase coming on The Day.

Side Note: When "original sin" is thrown out as an idea imposed on the text, other debates about Genesis start to mean less. I see no reason to understand Genesis 1-11 as anything but a metaphor and analogy of the human condition, and when Paul or Jesus draw Human (adam) into the discussion, they are calling on the literary figure, not a literal one. It’s not unlike me saying, “Just like Iron Man pulled one over on Thanos, Jesus pulled one over on the rebel elohim.” I’m drawing an analogy from a literary/media figure to make a point about a real one.

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[1] Tovia Singer, “Does Judaism Believe in Original Sin? - Outreach Judaism,” 28 April 2014, https://outreachjudaism.org/original-sin/.

[2] Tyler Allen Stewart, “‘The Present Evil Age’: The Origin and Persistence of Evil in Galatians” (Marquette University, April 2019), Argument picks up around page 75., Dissertations (1934 -) - 830, Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects, https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/830/.

[3] Heiser, The Unseen Realm; Michael Heiser, Angels: What the Bible Really Says about God’s Heavenly Host, 2018, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1900613; Michael Heiser, Demons: What the Bible Really Says about the Powers of Darkness (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020); Michael Heiser, “The Naked Bible Podcast,” The Naked Bible Podcast, n.d., https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/episodes/.

[4] Heiser, The Unseen Realm, §Chapter 11-Section: The Nachash of Genesis 3.

Shalom שָׁלוֹם: Live Long and Prosper!

Darrell Wolfe

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant | Freelancer | Bible Nerd *Written withs some editing and research assistance from ChatGPT-4o