Consequences of the Fall. The consequences of the Fall and the promise of a savior

When the first people sinned, they felt ashamed and afraid, as happens to everyone who does wrong. They immediately noticed that they were naked. To cover their nakedness, they sewed clothes for themselves from fig tree leaves, in the form of wide belts. Instead of receiving perfection equal to God's, as they wanted, it turned out the other way around, their minds became darkened, they began to be tormented, and they lost peace of mind.

All this happened because they knew good and evil against the will of God, that is, through sin.

Sin changed people so much that when they heard the voice of God in paradise, they hid among the trees in fear and shame, immediately forgetting that nothing could be hidden anywhere from the omnipresent and omniscient God. Thus, every sin removes people from God.

But God, in His mercy, began to call them to repentance, that is, so that people understand their sin, confess it to the Lord and ask for forgiveness.

The Lord asked: “Adam, where are you?”

God asked again: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you not eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?”

But Adam said: “The wife whom You gave me, she gave me fruit and I ate it.” So Adam began to blame Eve and even God himself, who gave him a wife.

And the Lord said to Eve: “What have you done?”

But Eve, instead of repenting, answered: “The serpent tempted me, and I ate.”

Then the Lord announced the consequences of the sin they had committed.

God said to Eve: " You will give birth to children in illness and must obey your husband".

Adam said: “Because of your sin, the earth will not be fruitful as before. It will produce thorns and thistles for you. By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread,” that is, you will earn food through hard work,” until you return to the land from which you were taken"that is, until you die." For you are dust and to dust you will return".

Expulsion from Paradise

And he said to the devil, who was hiding in the snake, the main culprit of human sin: " damn you for doing this"... And he said that there would be a struggle between him and people, in which people would remain winners, namely: " The seed of the woman will cut off your head, and you will bruise his heel.", that is, it will come from the wife Descendant - Savior of the world Who will be born of a virgin will defeat the devil and save people, but for this he himself will have to suffer.

People accepted this promise or promise of God about the coming of the Savior with faith and joy, because it gave them great consolation. And so that people would not forget this promise of God, God taught people to bring victims. To do this, He commanded to slaughter a calf, lamb or goat and burn them with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins and with faith in the future Savior. Such a sacrifice was a pre-image or prototype of the Savior, Who had to suffer and shed His blood for our sins, that is, with His most pure blood, wash our souls from sin and make them pure, holy, again worthy of heaven.

Right there, in paradise, the first sacrifice for the sin of people was made. And God made clothes for Adam and Eve from the skins of animals and clothed them.

But since people became sinners, they could no longer live in paradise, and the Lord expelled them from paradise. And the Lord placed a cherub angel with a fiery sword at the entrance to paradise to guard the path to the tree of life. The original sin of Adam and Eve with all its consequences, through natural birth, passed on to all their offspring, that is, to all of humanity - to all of us. That is why we are born sinners and are subject to all the consequences of sin: sorrows, illnesses and death.

So, the consequences of the Fall turned out to be enormous and grave. People have lost their heavenly blissful life. The world, darkened by sin, has changed: from then on the earth began to produce crops with difficulty; in the fields, along with good fruits, weeds began to grow; animals began to fear humans, became wild and predatory. Disease, suffering and death appeared. But, most importantly, people, through their sinfulness, lost close and direct communication with God; He no longer appeared to them in a visible way, as in paradise, that is, people’s prayer became imperfect.

The sacrifice was a prototype of the Savior's sacrifice on the cross

NOTE: See the Bible in the book. "Genesis": ch. 3 , 7-24.

Conversation about the Fall

When God created the first people, he saw that " there is a lot of good"that is, man is directed towards God with his love, that in created man there are no contradictions. Man is a complete unity of spirit, soul And body, - one harmonious whole, namely, the spirit of man is directed towards God, the soul is united or freely subordinated to the spirit, and the body is to the soul; unity of purpose, aspiration and will. The man was holy, deified.

The will of God, namely, is that man freely, that is, with love, strives for God, the source of eternal life and bliss, and thereby invariably remains in communion with God, in the bliss of eternal life. These were Adam and Eve. That's why they had an enlightened mind and " Adam knew every creature by name“, this means that the physical laws of the universe and the animal world were revealed to him, which we now partially comprehend and will comprehend in the future. But by their fall, people violated the harmony within themselves - the unity of spirit, soul and body, - upset their nature. There was no unity of purpose, aspiration and will.

It is in vain that some want to see the meaning of the Fall allegorically, i.e. that the Fall consisted of physical love between Adam and Eve, forgetting that the Lord Himself commanded them: “be fruitful and multiply...” Moses clearly narrates that “Eve sinned first alone, and not with her husband,” says Metropolitan Philaret. “How could Moses have written this if he had written the allegory that they want to find here?”

The essence the fall consisted is that the first parents, succumbing to temptation, stopped looking at the forbidden fruit as an object of God’s commandment, and began to consider it in its supposed relation to themselves, to their sensuality and their heart, their understanding (Ccl. 7 , 29), with deviation from the unity of the truth of God in the multiplicity of one’s own thoughts, one’s own desires not concentrated in the will of God, i.e. deviating into lust. Lust, having conceived sin, gives birth to actual sin (Jas. 1 , 14-15). Eve, tempted by the devil, saw in the forbidden tree not what it was, but what she herself wishes, according to certain types of lust (1 John. 2 , 16; Life 3 , 6). What lusts were revealed in Eve’s soul before eating the forbidden fruit? " And the wife saw that the tree was good for food", that is, she suggested some special, unusually pleasant taste in the forbidden fruit - this lust of the flesh. "And that it's pleasing to the eyes", that is, the forbidden fruit seemed most beautiful to the wife - this lust tous, or passion for pleasure. " And it is desirable because it gives knowledge", that is, the wife wanted to experience that higher and divine knowledge that the tempter promised her - this worldly pride.

First sin is born in sensuality- the desire for pleasant sensations, - for luxury, in heart, the desire to enjoy without reasoning, in the mind- the dream of arrogant polyscience, and consequently, penetrates all the forces of human nature.

The disorder of human nature lies in the fact that sin rejected or tore the soul away from the spirit, and the soul, as a result of this, began to have an attraction to the body, to the flesh and to rely on it, and the body, having lost this elevating power of the soul and as itself created from " chaos", began to have an attraction to sensuality, to "chaos", to death. Therefore, the result of sin is illness, destruction and death. The human mind became darkened, the will weakened, feelings were distorted, contradictions arose, and the human soul lost its sense of purpose towards God.

Thus, having transgressed the limit set by the commandment of God, man turned his soul away from God, true universal concentration and completeness, formed for her false center in her self, concluded her in the darkness of sensuality, in the coarseness of matter. The mind, will and activity of man turned away, deviated, fell from God to creation, from the heavenly to the earthly, from the invisible to the visible (Gen. 3 , 6). Deceived by the seduction of the tempter, man voluntarily “came close to foolish beasts and became like them” (Ps. 48 , 13).

The disorder of human nature by original sin, the separation of the soul from the spirit in man, which even now has an attraction to sensuality, to lust, are clearly expressed in the words of Ap. Paul: “I do not do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I do not want. But if I do that which I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Rom. 7 , 19-20). A person constantly has “remorse” within himself, recognizing his sinfulness and criminality. In other words: a person can restore his nature, damaged and upset by sin, through his own efforts, without the intervention or help of God. impossible. Therefore, it took the condescension or coming of God Himself to earth - the incarnation of the Son of God (taking on flesh) - for re-creation fallen and corrupted human nature, to save man from destruction and eternal death.

Why did the Lord God allow the first people to fall into sin? And if he allowed it, then why didn’t the Lord simply (“mechanically”) return them after the Fall to their previous state of heavenly life?

Almighty God certainly could have prevented the fall of the first people, but He did not want to suppress them freedom, because it wasn’t for Him to disfigure people Your own image. The image and likeness of God is primarily expressed in human free will.

Prof. explains this question well. Nesmelov: “Due to the fact that the impossibility mechanical God's salvation of people seems very unclear and even completely incomprehensible to many; we consider it worthwhile to provide a more detailed explanation of this impossibility. It was impossible to save the first people by preserving for them the living conditions in which they were before their fall, because their death lay not in the fact that they turned out to be mortal, but in the fact that they turned out to be criminal. So while they were aware their crime, paradise was certainly impossible for them precisely because of their awareness of their crime. And if it happened that they would have forgotten about their crime, then by this they would only confirm their sinfulness, and therefore, paradise would again be impossible for them due to their moral inability to approach the state that expressed their primitive life in paradise. Consequently, the first people certainly could not regain their lost paradise - not because God did not want this, but because their own moral state did not and could not allow this.

But the children of Adam and Eve were not guilty of their crime and could not recognize themselves as criminals only on the grounds that their parents were criminals. Therefore, there is no doubt that, equally powerful to create a person and raise a baby, God could remove the children of Adam from a state of sinfulness and place them in normal conditions of moral development. But for this, of course, it is necessary:

a) God’s consent to the death of the first people,

b) the consent of the first people to cede to God their rights to children and forever renounce the hope of salvation and

c) the consent of children to leave their parents in a state of death.

If we admit that the first two of these conditions can somehow be considered at least possible, then it is still impossible to realize the third necessary condition in any way. After all, if the children of Adam and Eve actually decided that let their father and mother die for the crime they committed, then by this they would obviously only show that they are completely unworthy of heaven, and therefore - they would certainly have lost him."

It was possible to destroy sinners and create new ones, but the newly created people, having free will, wouldn’t they sin? But God did not want to allow the man he created to really be created in vain and, at least in his distant descendant, not to defeat the evil that he would allow to triumph over himself. For the Omniscient God does nothing in vain. The Lord God with His eternal thought embraced the entire plan of peace; and His eternal plan included the incarnation of His Only Begotten Son for the salvation of fallen humanity.

Precisely, it was necessary to recreate fallen humanity compassion, love so as not to violate the free will of a person; but so that a person of his own free will wants to return to God, and not under duress or of necessity, for in this case people could not become worthy children of God. And according to the eternal thought of God, people should become like Himself, partakers of eternal blissful life with Him.

So wise And good Almighty Lord God, not disgusted come down to the sinful earth, take upon ourselves our sin-damaged flesh, if only save us and return to the heavenly bliss of eternal life.

God settled the first man Adam in paradise, in Eden, to cultivate and preserve it. Paradise - a beautiful garden - was located in Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Adam was created "from the dust of the ground." But he was alone - the animals were below him, and God was immeasurably above him. “And the Lord God said it was not good for man to be alone; Let us make him a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18) It is no coincidence that Eve, the wife, was created from Adam’s rib, and not “from the dust of the ground.” According to the Bible, all people come from one body and soul, all from Adam, and must be united, love and take care of each other.
In heaven, among the many trees, there were two special trees. The tree of life, by eating the fruits from which people gained health and immortality of the body. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruits of which were forbidden to eat. This was the only prohibition of God; by fulfilling it, people could express their love and gratitude to God. The highest bliss of the first people was in communication with God, He appeared to them in a visible image, like a Father to children. God created people free, they themselves could decide what to do. Man lived in complete harmony with nature, understood the language of animals and birds. All the animals were obedient to him and peaceful.
The devil entered the serpent and tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit: “But God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5)
“And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and desirable, because it gave knowledge; and she took of its fruit and ate; And she gave it also to her husband, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6)
Where has gratitude gone? People have forgotten the only commandment of God. They placed their desire above the will of their Creator. From the outside we see the vanity and insignificance of human desires. But it is always difficult to cope with your desires; your desires seem very significant. When a child does things his own way, contrary to his parents’ prohibitions, he is punished. Adam and Eve received their just punishment. But God initially called people to repentance. But Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam shifted the blame onto Eve and even onto God Himself: “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” (Gen.3:12)
Forgiveness requested for an offense on time softens the punishment or even cancels it completely. But there were no requests for forgiveness. Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise with these words: “To the woman (the Lord) said: in illness you will give birth to children; and your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Gen. 3:16)
“And he said to Adam: Cursed is the earth because of you; you will eat from it in sorrow all the days of your life; She will bring forth thorns and thistles for you; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the earth; for dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:17-19)
The culprit of the fall of people - the devil - is cursed, and, when the time comes, he will be defeated.
People learned good and evil against the will of God. The human mind became darkened, the will weakened, feelings were distorted, contradictions arose, and the human soul lost its sense of purpose towards God. People did not become “like gods,” as the devil promised, but they became scared and ashamed.
(We will write down the consequences of the Fall in a notebook)
Consequences of the Fall of people:
1. Weeds grew on the ground - “thorns and thistles.”
2. Animals became wild and predatory. They stopped obeying man.
3. Disease and death came into the world.
4. People have lost direct communication with God.

Left without communication with God, alone with nature hostile to them, people repented. The most important thing that they could now pass on to their descendants was faith in the One God and His promise of the coming into the world of a Savior who would defeat the devil and reconcile humanity with God.
In memory of this God's promise, people made sacrifices. To do this, God commanded to slaughter a calf, ram or goat and burn them with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins and with faith in the Messiah. Such a sacrifice was a prototype of the Savior, Who had to suffer and shed His Blood for the sins of people. People had time for repentance and cleansing. The first sin that came into the world led people to other sins. God's care and admonition were over all people, but each person had freedom of choice - to accept or not accept God in his soul. Carry out the will of the Creator or follow your desires and impulses.
Adam and Eve had many children, but only three sons are mentioned in the Bible. Cain was born first, then Abel. “And Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and Cain was a farmer” (Gen. 4:2) One day the brothers made sacrifices to God. God accepted Abel's gift, but did not accept Cain's gift. Cain was very upset. “And the Lord said to Cain: Why are you upset? And why did your face droop? If you do good, don't you raise your face? And if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he draws you to himself, but you must rule over him” (Gen. 4:6-7)
In this biblical story we see that the expectation of recognition, some kind of gratitude for a good, good deed is not pleasing to God. By doing good to another selflessly, a person remains invulnerable to such vices as envy, vanity, and pride. Otherwise, they begin to dominate a person and lead to terrible sins. Cain did not heed the words of God, he was overcome by envy, and Cain, blinded by it, killed his brother Abel. If the first fall of man was directed against God, now man raises his hand against man.
The Lord gives Cain the opportunity to repent of his crime, asking where his brother Abel is. Cain lies in response that he does not know, forgetting that the Lord is Omniscient.
“And the Lord said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the earth; and now you are cursed from the earth; When you cultivate the land, it will no longer give its strength to you; you will be an exile and a wanderer on the earth" (Gen. 4:10-12)
When Eve gave birth to her first son, she named him “Cain,” which means “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” She named her second son Abel - “something”, smoke, his name reveals Eve’s inner disappointment. She thought that salvation would come with Cain, but it turned out that evil came with him. “Man proposes, but the Lord disposes.” Moreover, all those who play the harp and pipe came from the family of Cain. This is an attempt to replace God with abstract art, to fill the spiritual emptiness with the sounds of harp and pipes. Also from the family of Cain came the forgers of all tools made of copper and iron. The era of bronze and copper begins. But these are not just copper and iron, but instruments of death. Sin is multiplying on earth.
The Bible, in its opening chapters, paints a grim picture of the world's sin. But the Lord uses evil itself for providential purposes and turns it into good. Throughout the history of mankind, the question has been resolved: does a person want to live on his own or with the Lord. And, accordingly, the results.

Purpose of the lesson – consider the biblical account of the fall of our ancestors and its consequences.

Tasks:

1. Give listeners information about the emergence of evil in the created world.
2. Consider the temptation of the first people, the essence of their fall and the changes that happened to them.
3. Consider God's conversation with people after the Fall as a sermon of repentance.
4. Consider the punishment of the first parents, the consequences of the Fall, the curse of the serpent and the promise of the Savior.
5. Consider the interpretations of leather garments presented in exegetical literature.
6. Consider the salutary value of the expulsion of the first people from paradise and the appearance of mortality.
7. Give information about the location of heaven.

Lesson plan:

1. Conduct a homework check, either by recalling together with the students the content of the material covered, or by inviting them to take a test.
2. Reveal the content of the lesson.
3. Conduct a discussion-survey based on test questions.
4. Assign homework: read chapters 4-6 of the Holy Scripture, memorize: read chapters 4-6 of the Holy Scripture, familiarize yourself with the proposed literature and sources, memorize: the promise of God about the Savior of the world (Gen. 3, 15).

Sources:

1. John Chrysostom, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/16 http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/17
2. Gregory Palamas, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Grigorij_Palama/homilia/6 (date of access: 10/27/2015).
3. Simeon the New Theologian, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Simeon_Novyj_Bogoslov/slovo/45(access date: 10/27/2015).
4. Ephraim the Syrian, St. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Efrem_Sirin/tolkovanie-na-knigu-bytija/3 (date of access: 10/27/2015).

Basic educational literature:

2. Egorov G., Hierarch. http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Biblia/svjashennoe-pisanie-vethogo-zaveta/2#note18_return(access date: 10/27/2015).
3. Lopukhin A.P. http://www.paraklit.org/sv.otcy/Lopuhin_Bibleiskaja_istorija.htm#_Toc245117993 (access date: 10/27/2015).

Additional literature:

1. Vladimir Vasilik, deacon. http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/60583.htm(access date: 10/27/2015).

Key concepts:

• devil;
• Dennitsa;
• temptation;
• fall from grace;
• leather garments (robes);
• First Gospel, the promise of the Savior;
• Seed of the woman;
• death.

Test questions:

Illustrations:

Video materials:

1. Korepanov K. The Fall

1. The emergence of evil in the created world

In the book of the Wisdom of Solomon there is this expression: “Death entered the world through the envy of the devil”(Wis.2:24). The appearance of evil preceded the appearance of man, namely, the falling away of Dennitsa and those angels who followed him. The Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel that “the devil is a murderer from time immemorial” (John 8:44), as the holy fathers explain, because he sees a person raised by God there, and even above what he had before and from which he fell . Therefore, in the very first temptation that comes upon a person, we see the action of the devil. Revelation does not tell us how long the blissful life of the first people in paradise lasted. But this state already aroused the evil envy of the devil, who, having lost it himself, looked with hatred at the bliss of others. After the fall of the devil, envy and thirst for evil became characteristics of his being. All goodness, peace, order, innocence, obedience became hateful to him, therefore, from the very first day of man’s appearance, the devil strives to dissolve man’s grace-filled union with God and drag man along with him into eternal destruction.

2. The Fall

And so, in paradise the tempter appeared - in the form of a serpent, who "he was more cunning than all the beasts of the field"(Gen. 3:1). An evil and insidious spirit, having entered the serpent, approached the wife and said to her: “Is it true that God said: You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?”(Gen. 3:1). The serpent approaches not Adam, but Eve because, apparently, she received the commandment not directly from God, but through Adam. It must be said that what is described here has become typical of any temptation by evil. The process itself and its stages are very clearly depicted. It all starts with a question. The serpent does not come and say, “Taste of the tree,” because this is clearly evil and a clear departure from the commandment. He says: “Is it true that God forbade you to eat the fruit?” That is, he doesn’t seem to know. And in upholding the truth, Eve does a little more than she should. She says: “We can eat the fruits of the trees, only the fruits of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, do not eat them or touch them, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman: No, you will not die."(Gen.3:2-4). There was no talk of touching. The confusion is already starting. This is a common satanic trick. At first, he does not lead a person directly to evil, but always mixes a small drop of untruth with some truth. Why, by the way, should one refrain from all kinds of lies; Well, just think, I lied a little there, it’s not scary. It's actually scary. This is exactly that small drop that paves the way for a much larger lie. After this, a larger lie follows, because the serpent says: “No, you will not die, but God knows that on the day you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”(Gen.3:4-5). Here, again, the truth, but in different proportions, is mixed with untruth. Indeed, man was created to be a god. Being a creature by nature, he is called by grace to deification. Indeed, God knows that they will be like Him. They will be like God, but not like gods. The devil introduces polytheism.

Man was created to be a god. But for this, a certain path is indicated in communication and love with God. But here the serpent offers a different path. It turns out that you can become God without God, without love, without faith, through some action, through some tree, through something that is not God. All occultists are still engaged in such attempts.

Sin is lawlessness. The law of God is the law of love. And the sin of Adam and Eve is the sin of disobedience, but it is also the sin of apostasy from love. In order to tear a person away from God, the devil offers him in his heart a false image of God, and therefore an idol. And, having accepted this idol in the heart instead of God, a person falls away. The serpent represents God as deceitful and jealously defending some of His interests, His capabilities and hiding them from man.

Under the influence of the serpent’s words, the woman looked at the forbidden tree differently than before, and it seemed pleasant to her eyes, and the fruits were especially attractive due to the mysterious property of giving knowledge of good and evil and the opportunity to become a god without God. This external impression decided the outcome of the internal struggle, and the woman “ she took of its fruit and ate, and gave it also to her husband, and he ate"(Gen. 3.6) .

3. Changes in Man After the Fall

The greatest revolution in the history of mankind and the whole world has taken place - people violated the commandment of God and thereby sinned. Those who were supposed to serve as the pure source and beginning of the entire human race poisoned themselves with sin and tasted the fruits of death. Having lost their purity, they saw their nakedness and made aprons for themselves from leaves. They were now afraid to appear before God, to whom they had previously strived with great joy.

4. Offer of repentance

There is no other way to restore a person other than the path of repentance. Horror seized Adam and his wife, and they hid from the Lord in the trees of paradise. But the loving Lord called Adam to Himself: « [Adam,]where are you?"(Gen.3.9). The Lord did not ask about where Adam was, but about what state he was in. With this He called Adam to repentance. But sin had already darkened man, and the calling voice of God aroused in Adam only a desire to justify himself. Adam answered the Lord with trepidation from the thicket of trees: “ I heard Your voice in paradise and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself."(Gen. 3.10) . – « Who told you that you are naked? have you not eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?"(Gen. 3.11). The question was posed directly, but the sinner was unable to answer it just as directly. He gave an evasive answer: “ The wife whom You gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate"(Gen. 3.12). Adam placed the blame on his wife and even on God Himself, who gave him this wife. Then the Lord turned to his wife: “ What did you do?“But the wife followed Adam’s example and did not admit her guilt: “ The serpent seduced me and I ate"(Gen. 3.13). The wife told the truth, but the fact that they both tried to justify themselves before the Lord was a lie. By rejecting the possibility of repentance, man made it impossible for himself to further communicate with God.

5. Punishment. Consequences of the Fall

The Lord pronounced His righteous judgment. The serpent was cursed before all the animals. He is destined for the miserable life of a reptile on his own belly and feeding on the dust of the earth. The wife is condemned to severe suffering and illness when giving birth to children. Addressing Adam, the Lord said that for his disobedience the land that feeds him would be cursed. " It will produce thorns and thistles for you... by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return."(Gen. 3.18–19).

The consequences of the Fall of the first people were catastrophic both for man and for the whole world. In sin, people distanced themselves from God and turned to the evil one, and now it is impossible for them to communicate with God as it was before. Having turned away from the Source of life - God, Adam and Eve immediately died spiritually. Physical death did not immediately strike them (by the grace of God, who wanted to bring their first parents to repentance, Adam then lived for 930 years), but at the same time, along with sin, corruption entered people: sin - the tool of the evil one - gradually became aging destroys their bodies, which ultimately led the ancestors to physical death. Sin damaged not only the body, but also the entire nature of primordial man - that original harmony was disrupted in him, when the body was subordinate to the soul, and the soul to the spirit, which was in communion with God. As soon as the first people departed from God, the human spirit, having lost all guidelines, turned to spiritual experiences, and the soul was carried away by bodily desires and gave birth to passions.

Just as harmony was disrupted in a person, so it happened throughout the world. According to Ap. Paul, after the Fall " all creation has submitted to vanity"and since then has been waiting for liberation from corruption (Rom. 8.20–21). After all, if before the Fall all nature (both the elements and animals) was subordinate to the first people and without labor on the part of man gave him food, then after the Fall man no longer feels like the king of nature. The land has become less fertile, and people need to make great efforts to provide themselves with food. Natural disasters began to threaten people's lives from all sides. And even among the animals to which Adam once gave names, predators appeared that pose a danger to both other animals and humans. It is possible that animals also began to die only after the Fall, as many holy fathers say (St. John Chrysostom, St. Simeon the New Theologian, etc.).

But not only our first parents tasted the fruits of the Fall. Having become the ancestors of all people, Adam and Eve conveyed to humanity their nature, distorted by sin. Since then, all people have become corruptible and mortal, and, most importantly, everyone has found themselves under the power of Satan, under the power of sin. Sinfulness became, as it were, a property of man, so that people could not help but sin, even if someone wanted to. Usually they say about this state that all humanity inherited from Adam original sin. Here, original sin does not mean that the personal sin of the first people was passed on to the descendants of Adam (after all, the descendants did not personally commit it), but rather that it was the sinfulness of human nature with all the ensuing consequences (corruption, death, etc.) that was passed on from the first parents to all people. .). The first people, following the devil, seemed to sow the seed of sin into human nature, and in every new person born this seed began to germinate and bear the fruits of personal sins, so that every person became a sinner.

But the merciful Lord did not leave the primitive people (and all their descendants) without consolation. He then gave them a promise that was supposed to support them in the days of subsequent trials and tribulations of a sinful life. Speaking His judgment to the snake, the Lord said: “ and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it(translated as seventy - He) he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel"(Gen. 3.15). This promise about the “seed of the Woman” is the first promise about the Savior of the world and is often called the “First Gospel”, which is not accidental, because These brief words speak prophetically of how the Lord intends to save fallen humanity. The fact that this will be a Divine action is clear from the words “ I'll put the enmity to rest“- a person weakened by sin cannot independently rebel against the slavery of the evil one, and here the intervention of God is required. At the same time, the Lord acts through the weakest part of humanity - through woman. Just as the conspiracy of the wife with the serpent led to the fall of people, so the enmity of the wife and the serpent will lead to their restoration, which mysteriously shows the most important role of the Most Holy Theotokos in our salvation. The use of the strange phrase “seed of the woman” indicates the unmarried conception of the Blessed Virgin. The use of the pronoun “He” instead of “it” in the LXX translation indicates that even before the birth of Christ, many Jews understood this place as indicating not so much the offspring of the wife as a whole, but rather a single person, the Messiah-Savior, who will crush the head of the serpent - the devil and will save people from his dominion. The serpent can only bite His “heel,” which prophetically indicates the Savior’s suffering on the Cross.

6. Leather clothes

Leather clothing, according to the interpretation of the holy fathers, is the mortality that human nature received after the fall. Smch. Methodius of Olympus emphasizes that “skin garments are not the essence of the body, but a mortal accessory.” As a result of this state of human nature, he became subject to suffering and illness, and his mode of existence changed. “In addition to foolish skin,” in the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, a person perceived: “sexual union, conception, birth, defilement, feeding from the breast, and then food and throwing it out of the body, gradual growth, adulthood, old age, illness and death.”

In addition, leather clothes became a veil separating man from the spiritual world - God and angelic forces. Free communication with them after the Fall became impossible. This protection of a person from communication with the spiritual world is apparently beneficial for him, because many descriptions of a person’s meetings with both angels and demons found in literature testify that such an overt collision of a person with the spiritual world happens to him difficult to bear. Therefore, a person is covered with such an impenetrable cover.

The literal interpretation of leather clothes is that the first sacrifice was made after the expulsion from paradise, which Adam was taught by God Himself, and these clothes were made from the skins of sacrificial animals.

7. Expulsion from Paradise

After the people were clothed in leather garments, the Lord expelled them from paradise: “ And he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned around at the east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life."(Gen. 3.24), of which they, through their sin, have now become unworthy. The person is no longer allowed to see him, “ lest he stretch out his hand, and also take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"(Gen. 3.22). The Lord does not want a person, having tasted the fruits of the tree of life, to remain eternally in sin, because the bodily immortality of a person would only confirm his spiritual death. And this shows that the bodily death of a person is not only a punishment for sin, but also a good deed of God towards people.

8. The meaning of death

It is also worth dwelling on the question of the meaning of punishment: is a person’s mortality a punishment or a benefit for the person himself? There is no doubt that it is both, but punishment not in the sense of God’s vengeful desire to do bad things to man for being disobedient, but as a kind of logical consequence of what man himself has created. That is, we can say that if a person jumped out of a window and broke his legs and arms, he is punished for this, but he himself is the author of this punishment. Since man is not original, and he cannot exist outside of communion with God, death also places a certain limit on the possibility of developing in evil.

On the other hand, death, as is known from practical experience, is a very important instructive factor for a person; often only in the face of death is he able to think about the eternal.

And thirdly, death, which was a punishment for man, was also a source of salvation for him subsequently, since through the death of the Savior man was restored, and the lost communion with God became possible for him.

9. The location of paradise

With the expulsion of people from paradise, among the labors and hardships of a sinful life, over time, the very memory of its exact location was erased; among different peoples we encounter the most vague legends, vaguely pointing to the east as the place of a primitive blissful state. A more precise indication is found in the Bible, but it is also so unclear to us given the current appearance of the earth that it is also impossible to determine with geographic accuracy the location of Eden, in which paradise was located. Here is the biblical instruction: “And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden, in the east. A river came out of Eden to water Paradise; and then divided into four rivers. The name of one is Pison; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and onyx stone. The name of the second river is Tikhon (Geon): it flows around the entire land of Kush. The name of the third river is Khiddekel (Tigris); it flows before Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates” (Gen. 2:8-14). From this description, first of all, it is clear that Eden is a vast country in the east, in which paradise was located, as a smaller room intended for the habitation of the first people. Then the name of the third and fourth rivers clearly indicates that this Edenic country was in some neighborhood with Mesopotamia. But this is the extent of the geographical indications that are understandable to us. The first two rivers (Pison and Tikhon) now have nothing corresponding to themselves either in geographical location or in name, and therefore they gave rise to the most arbitrary guesses and rapprochements. Some saw them as the Ganges and the Nile, others as Phasis (Rion) and Araks, originating in the hills of Armenia, others as the Syr-Darya and Amu-Darya, and so on ad infinitum. But all these guesses are not of serious significance and are based on arbitrary approximations. Further defining the geographical location of these rivers are the lands of Havilah and Cush. But the first of them is as mysterious as the river that irrigates it, and one can only guess, judging by its metal and mineral wealth, that this is some part of Arabia or India, which in ancient times served as the main sources of gold and precious stones. The name of another country, Kush, is somewhat more specific. This term in the Bible usually refers to the countries lying south of Palestine, and the “Cushites,” as the descendants of Ham, from his son Cush or Cush, are found throughout the entire space from the Persian Gulf to southern Egypt. From all this we can only conclude one thing: Eden was indeed in some neighborhood with Mesopotamia, as indicated by the legends of all the most ancient peoples, but it is impossible to determine its exact location. Since that time, the earth's surface has undergone so many upheavals (especially during the flood) that not only could the direction of the rivers change, but their very connection with each other could be broken, or even the very existence of some of them could cease. As a result of this, science is just as blocked from accessing the exact location of paradise as it was blocked for sinner Adam from eating from the tree of life in it.

Test questions:

1. What event in the created world caused the emergence of evil?
2. Why does the devil approach his temptation not to Adam, but to his wife?
3. What was the sin of the first people?
4. What changes occurred in man after the Fall?
5. Tell us about God’s conviction of sinners and God’s offer of repentance to them.
6. What punishment does a wife receive for sin?
7. What punishment does Adam receive for sin?
8. What was the curse of the serpent and what promise did it contain?
9. How should we understand leather clothing?
10. Why are expulsion from paradise and death saving for people?
11. What can you say about the location of heaven?

Sources and literature on the topic

Sources:

1. John Chrysostom, St. Conversations on the Book of Genesis. Conversation XVI. About the fall of the primeval ones. “And the devil was both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/16. Conversation XVII. “And she heard the voice of the Lord God, going into paradise at noon” (Gen. 3:8). [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Zlatoust/tolk_01/17 (access date: 10/27/2015).
2. Gregory Palamas, St. Omilia. Omilia VI. Exhortation to Lent. It also briefly talks about the creation of the world. It was said during the first week of Lent. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Grigorij_Palama/homilia/6 (date of access: 10/27/2015).
3. Simeon the New Theologian, St. Words. Word 45. P. 2. About the crime of the commandment and expulsion from paradise. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Simeon_Novyj_Bogoslov/slovo/45 (access date: 10/27/2015).
4. Ephraim the Syrian, St. Interpretations of Holy Scripture. Genesis. Chapter 3. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Efrem_Sirin/tolkovanie-na-knigu-bytija/3 (access date: 10/27/2015).

Basic educational literature:

1. Serebryakova Yu.V., Nikulina E.N., Serebryakov N.S. Fundamentals of Orthodoxy: Textbook. - Ed. 3rd, corrected, additional - M.: PSTGU, 2014. The Fall of the Forefathers and its Consequences. The promise of the Savior.
2. Egorov G., Hierarch. Holy Scripture of the Old Testament. Part one: Legal and educational books. Lecture course. – M.: PSTGU, 2004. 136 p. Section I. The Pentateuch of Moses. Chapter 1. Beginning. 1.6. The Fall. 1.7. Consequences of the Fall. 1.8. The meaning of punishment. 1.9. The promise of salvation. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Biblia/svjashennoe-pisanie-vethogo-zaveta/2#note18_return (date of access: 10/27/2015).
3. Lopukhin A.P. Biblical history. M., 1993. III. The Fall and its consequences. The location of paradise. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://www.paraklit.org/sv.otcy/Lopuhin_Bibleiskaja_istorija.htm#_Toc245117993 (access date: 10/27/2015).

Additional literature:

1. Vladimir Vasilik, deacon. Spiritual and psychological aspects of the Fall. [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/60583.htm (access date: 10/27/2015).
2. Explanatory Bible, or Commentary on all the books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: in 11 volumes / Edited by A.P. Lopukhina (vol. 1); publication of A.P.'s successors Lopukhin (vol. 2-11). St. Petersburg: Petersburg, 1904-1913. Commentary on the book of Genesis. Chapter 3.

Video materials:

1. Korepanov K. The Fall

2. Anthony of Sourozh (Bloom), Metropolitan. Conversation about the history of the Fall

3. Genesis. "The Death of the First World" Lecture 2 (chapters 1-3). Priest Oleg Stenyaev. Bible portal

4. Biblical history. Kupriyanov F.A. Lecture 1

5. Conversations on the Sixth Day. Being. Chapter 3. Victor Lega. Bible portal

6. Book of Genesis. Chapter 3. The Bible. Hieromonk Nikodim (Shmatko).

7. Genesis. Chapter 3. Andrey Solodkov. Bible portal.

In the Bible, often, on almost every page, it says talks about the reality that we usually callwe suffer from sin. Old Testament expressions related toof this reality are numerous; they usually strongly borrowed from human relationships: omission, lawlessness, rebellion, injustice, etc.; Judaism adds to this "debt" (in the sense debt), and this expression also applies in the New Testament; in an even more general order, a sinner is represented as one "who does evil in the sight of God's"; “righteous” (“saddiq”) is usually contrasted with “evil” (“rasha”). But true nature sin with its wickedness and in all its breadth appears primarily through biblical history; from her we also learn that this revelation about man is at the same time a revelation about God, about His love, which sin resists, and about His mercy, which is manifesteddue to sin; for the history of salvation is nothing else,like the story of God’s tirelessly repeated Creationthe number of attempts to tear a person away from his attachment aversion to sin. Among all the stories of the Old Testament, the story of sin the fall with which the history of mankind opens, already presents a teaching that is unusually rich in its own way content. This is where we need to start in order to understand what sin is, although the word itself has not yet been spoken here.

Adam's sin manifests itself essentially as disobedientshaniye, as an action by which a person consciously and deliberately opposes himself to God, shaya one of His commandments (Gen. 3.3); but deeperthis outward act of rebellion in Scripture the internal act from which it happens: Adam and Eve disobeyed becausethat, succumbing to the serpent’s suggestion, they wanted “to be like gods who know good and evil” (3.5), i.e., according to the most common interpretation is to put oneself in the place of God in order to decide what- good and what is evil; taking your opinion for measure, they claim to be the only ones points of your destiny and control yourself yourself at your own discretion; they refuse depend on the One who created them, pervertingt. arr. relationship that unites man with God.

According to Genesis 2, this relationship was not only in dependence, but also in friendship. Unlike the gods mentioned in ancient myths (cf. Gilga mesh), there was nothing that God would refuseman created “in His image and likeness”(Genesis 1.26 ff); He left nothing for Himself one, even life (cf. Wis. 2.23). And so, at the instigation of the serpent, first Eve, then Adam begin to doubt this infinitely generous God. A commandment given by God for the good of man (cf. Rom 7:10), seems to them only a means that God used to protect Their advantages, and added to the warning commandments are just lies: “No, you will not die; but God knows that on the day that you eat of it (the fruit of the tree of knowledge) it will be opened your eyes and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3.4 ff.). The man did not trust such a god, who became his rival. The very concept of God turned out to be perverted: the concept of infinitely demon selfish, for perfect, God, having no there is no shortage of anything and can only give, is replaced by the idea of ​​some limited, calculating being, entirely occupied in order to protect himself from his creation. Before pushing a person to crime, sin corrupted his spirit, since his spirit was affected in the very relation to God, whose image man is, it is impossible to imagine a deeper perversion and one cannot be surprised that it entailed such grave consequences.

The relationship between man and God has changed: this is the verdict of conscience. Before being punished in the literal sense of the word (Gen. 3.23), Adam and Eve, previously so close to God (cf. 2.15), hide from his face between the trees (3.8). So, man himself has abandoned God and the responsibility for his offense lies with him; he fled from God, and expulsion from paradise followed as a kind of confirmation of his own decision. At the same time, he had to make sure that the warning was not false: away from God, access to the tree of life is impossible (3.22), and death finally comes into its own. Being the cause of the gap between man and God, sin also creates a gap between members of human society already in paradise within the original couple itself. As soon as the sin is committed, Adam fences himself off, blaming the one whom God gave him as a helper (2.18), as “bone from his bones and flesh from his flesh” (2.23), and this gap in turn is confirmed by punishment: “Your desire is for your husband, and he will rule over you” (3.16). Subsequently, the consequences of this gap extend to the children of Adam: the murder of Abel occurs (4.8), then the reign of violence and the law of the strong, sung by Lamech (4.24). The mystery of evil and sin extends beyond the human world. Between God and man stands a third person, about whom the Old Testament does not speak at all - in all likelihood, so that there is no temptation to consider him a kind of second god - but who, by Wisdom (Wis 2.24), is identified with the Devil or Satan and appears again in the New Testament.

The story of the first sin ends with the promise of some real hope to man. True, the slavery to which he doomed himself, thinking to achieve independence, is in itself final; sin, once entered into the world, can only multiply, and as it grows, life actually suffers, to the point that it completely stops with the flood (6.13 ff). The beginning of the break came from a person; it is clear that the initiative for reconciliation can only come from God. And already in this first narrative, God gives hope that the day will come when He will take upon Himself this initiative (3.15). The goodness of God, which man despised, will ultimately overcome - “he will overcome evil with good” (Rom 12.21). The Book of Wisdom (10.1) specifies that Adam was taken away from his crime." In Gen. It has already been shown that this goodness acts: it saves Noah and his family from general corruption and from punishment for it (Gen. 6.5-8), in order to begin through him, as it were, a new world; in particular, when “from among the nations mixed in the same mind of evil” (Wis. 10.5) she chose Abraham and brought him out of the sinful world (Gen. 12.1), so that “all the families of the earth would be blessed in him” (Gen. 12.2 ff., clearly providing a counterbalance to the curses in 3.14 sll).

The consequences of the Fall for the first man were catastrophic. Not only did he lose the bliss and sweetness of paradise, but the whole nature of man changed and became distorted. Having sinned, he fell away from the natural state and fell into the unnatural (Abba Dorotheos). All parts of his spiritual and physical makeup were damaged: the spirit, instead of striving for God, became spiritual and passionate; the soul fell into the power of bodily instincts; the body, in turn, lost its original lightness and turned into heavy sinful flesh. After the Fall, man became “deaf, blind, naked, insensitive in relation to those (goods) from which he fell, and in addition, became mortal, corruptible and meaningless,” “instead of divine and incorruptible knowledge, he accepted carnal knowledge, for having become blind with his eyes souls... he received his sight with his bodily eyes” (Reverend Simeon the New Theologian). Illness, suffering and sorrow entered human life. He became mortal because he lost the opportunity to eat from the tree of life. Not only man himself, but also the entire world around him changed as a result of the Fall. The original harmony between nature and man is broken - now the elements can be hostile to him, storms, earthquakes, floods can destroy him. The earth will no longer grow all by itself: it must be cultivated “by the sweat of the brow,” and it will bring “thorns and thorns.” Animals also become enemies of man: the serpent will “bite his heel” and other predators will attack him (Gen. 3:14-19). The whole creation is subject to the “slavery of corruption,” and now it, together with man, will “wait for liberation” from this slavery, because it was subjected to vanity not voluntarily, but through the fault of man (Rom. 8:19-21).

Exegetes who interpreted biblical texts related to the Fall sought answers to a number of fundamental questions, for example: is the story of Gen. 3 a description of an event that actually took place, or is the book of Genesis talking only about the permanent state of the human race, designated with the help of symbols? What literary genre does Genesis belong to? 3? Etc. In patristic writing and in studies of later times, three main interpretations of Genesis have emerged. 3.

The literal interpretation was mainly developed by the Antiochene school. It suggests that Gen. 3 depicts events in the same form as they occurred at the dawn of the existence of the human race. Eden was located at a certain geographical point on the Earth (St. John Chrysostom, Conversations on Genesis, 13, 3; Blessed Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Commentary on Genesis, 26; Theodore of Mopsuestia). Some exegetes of this school believed that man was created immortal, while others, in particular Theodore of Mopsuestia, believed that he could receive immortality only by eating from the fruits of the Tree of Life (which is more consistent with the letter of Scripture; see Gen. 3:22). Rationalistic exegesis also accepts a literal interpretation, but it sees in Gen. 3 kind of etiological legend designed to explain human imperfection. These commentators place the biblical story on a par with other ancient etiological myths.

Allegorical interpretation comes in two forms. Supporters of one theory deny the eventful nature of the legend, seeing in it only an allegorical description of the eternal sinfulness of man. This point of view was outlined by Philo of Alexandria and was developed in modern times (Bultmann, Tillich). Supporters of another theory, without denying that behind the behavior of Gen. 3 there is a certain event, decipher its images using the allegorical method of interpretation, according to which the serpent denotes sensuality, Eden - the bliss of contemplating God, Adam - reason, Eve - feeling, the Tree of Life - good without an admixture of evil, the Tree of Knowledge - good mixed with evil , etc. (Origen, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Blessed Augustine, St. Ambrose of Milan).

Historical-symbolic interpretation is close to allegorical, but to interpret Holy Scripture it uses the system of symbols that existed in the Ancient East. In accordance with this interpretation, the very essence of the Genesis legend. 3 reflects some spiritual event. The figurative concreteness of the tale of the Fall visually, “icon-like,” depicts the essence of the tragic event: man’s falling away from God in the name of self-will. The symbol of the serpent was not chosen by the writer by chance, but due to the fact that for the Old Testament Church the main temptation was the pagan cults of sex and fertility, which had the snake as their emblem. Exegetes explain the symbol of the Tree of Knowledge in different ways. Some view eating its fruits as an attempt to experience evil in practice (Vysheslavtsev), others explain this symbol as the establishment of ethical standards independently of God (Lagrange). Since the verb “to know” in the Old Testament has the meaning of “to own,” “to be able to,” “to possess” (Gen. 4:1), and the phrase “good and evil” can be translated as “everything in the world,” the image of the Tree of Knowledge is sometimes interpreted as a symbol of power over the world, but such power that asserts itself independently of God, making its source not His will, but the will of man. That is why the serpent promises people that they will be “like gods.” In this case, the main tendency of the Fall should be seen in primitive magic and in the entire magical worldview.

Many exegetes of the patristic period saw in the biblical image of Adam only a specific individual, the first among people, and interpreted the transmission of sin in genetic terms (that is, as a hereditary disease). However, St. Gregory of Nyssa (On the structure of man, 16) and in a number of liturgical texts, Adam is understood as a corporate personality. With this understanding, both the image of God in Adam and the sin of Adam should be attributed to the entire human race as a single spiritual-physical superpersonality. This is confirmed by the words of the saint. Gregory the Theologian, who wrote that “through the crime of eating the whole Adam fell” (Mysterious Hymns, 8), and the words of the service speaking about the coming of Christ to save Adam. A dissenting opinion was held by those who, following Pelagius, believed that the Fall was only the personal sin of the first man, and all his descendants sin only of their own free will. Words of Genesis. 3:17 about the curse of the earth was often understood in the sense that imperfection entered into nature as a result of the Fall of man. At the same time, they referred to the Apostle Paul, who taught that the Fall entailed death (Rom. 5:12). However, the Bible itself’s indications of the serpent as the beginning of evil in creation made it possible to affirm the prehuman origin of imperfection, evil, and death. According to this view, man was involved in an already existing sphere of evil.

In the New Testament sin occupies no less space than in this Testament, and especially that the fullness of the revelation about done by the love of God for the victory over sin makes it possible to discern the true meaning of sin and at the same time its place in the general plan of God Wisdom.

The creed of the Synoptic Gospels from the very beginning The beginning represents Jesus among sinners. For he came for themand not for the sake of the righteous(Mark 2.17). When using expressions, we usually takeencouraged by the Jews of that time to remove the mate real debt. He compares vacation forgiveness of sins with removal of debt (Matt 6.12; 1 8.23 sll), which of course does not mean:sin is removed mechanically,regardless of the internal statea person who opens himself to grace for the renewal of his spirit and hearts . Like the prophets and like John the Baptist(Mark 1.4), Jesus preachesconversion, indigenous change of spirit , disposing a person to acceptGod's mercy, succumb to its life-giving effect: “The Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). To those who refuse to accept the light (Mark3.29) or thinks like a Phariseein the parable that does not need forgiveness (Luke 18.9sll), Jesus cannot give forgiveness. That is why, like the prophets, He denounces sin wherever there is sin, even among those who believethemselves righteous because they observe the dictates of the external law only. For sin is inside our heart . He came to "fulfill the law"in its fullness, and not at all to abolish it (Matthew 5.17); a disciple of Jesus cannot be satisfied with the "right" knowledge of the scribes and Pharisees"(5.20); of course, the righteousness preached by Jesus in the end ultimately comes down to a single commandment about love (7.12); but seeing how the Teacher acts, the student graduallylearns what it means to love and, on the other hand, what is sin that is opposed to love. He'll learn it, in particular, listening Jesus opening up to him sweetlyGod's kindness to the sinner. V NIt is difficult to find a place in the new Testamentshowing better than the parable of the prodigal son, To which is as close to the teaching of the prophets as sin hurtsGod's love and why God cannot forgivesinner without him remorse. Jesus reveals even more through His actions, than in His own words, God's attitude towards sin. He is not only accepts sinners with the same loveand with the same sensitivity as the father in the parable, without stopping in the face of possible indignation workers of this mercy, just as incapable of understanding it as the eldest son in the parable. But He also directly fightssin: He is the firsttriumphs over Satan during temptations; During His public ministry He had alreadypulls people out of that slavery to the devil and sin, which are illness and obsession, thereby beginning His service as a Child of Yahweh (Matt. 8.16), before “giving His soulas a ransom" (Mark 10.45) and "the blood of His New To pour out the covenant for many for the remission of sins” (Mt 26:28).

Evangelist John says not so much about the “remission of sins” by Jesus– although this is traditionalThe expression is also known to him (1 John 2.11), how much about Christ, “who takes away sin peace" ( John 1.29). For individual actions heexpects a mysterious reality that gives rise to them: a vulture hostile to God and His kingdom, towhich Christ opposes. This hostility manifests itself primarily specifically in voluntary rejection of the world. Sin characterized by the impenetrability of darkness: “The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light; for their deeds were evil” (John 3.19). Sinnerresists the light because he is afraid of it, fromfear, “lest his deeds be exposed.” Hehates him: “Everyone who does evil, hatesthe light is coming" (3.20). It's blinding– voluntary andself-righteous, because the sinner does not want to confessin him. “If you were blind, you would have no sin. Now you say: we see. Your sin remains."

To such an extent, persistent blindness cannot be explained except by the corrupting influence of Satan. Indeed, sin enslaves a person to Satan: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8.34). Just as a Christian is the son of God, so a sinner is the son of the devil, who first sinned and does his deeds. Among these cases, John. He especially notes murder and lies: “He was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When someone tells a lie, he says what is characteristic of him, because his father is a liar. He was a murderer, bringing death to people (cf. Wis. 2.24), and also inspiring Cain to kill his brother (1 John 3.12-15); and now he is a murderer, inspiring the Jews to kill the One who tells them the truth: “You seek to kill Me - the Man who told you the truth, and I heard it from God... You do the works of your father... and want to do the lusts of your father yours" (John 8.40-44). Homicide and lies are born of hatred. Regarding the devil, Scripture spoke of envy (Wis 2.24); In. without hesitation he uses the word “hatred”: just as a stubborn unbeliever “hates the light” (John 3.20), so the Jews hate Christ and His Father (15.22), and by the Jews here one should understand the world enslaved by Satan, all who refuse to recognize Christ. And this hatred leads to the killing of the Son of God (8.37). This is the dimension of this sin of the world over which Jesus triumphs. This is possible for him because He Himself is without sin (John 8.46: cf 1 John 3.5), “one” with God His Father (John 10.30), and finally, and perhaps mainly, “love”, for “ God is love” (1 John 4.8): during His life He did not cease to love, and His death was such a deed of love, which is impossible to imagine, it is the “accomplishment” of love (John 15.13; cf. 13.1; 19.30). That is why this death was a victory over the “Prince of this world.” The proof of this is not only that Christ can “receive the life He gave” (John 10.17), but even more so that He includes His disciples in His victory: by accepting Christ and thanks to this becoming a “child of God” (John 1.12), a Christian “does no sin,” “because he is born of God.” Jesus “takes away the sin of the world” (John 1.29), “baptizing with the Holy Spirit” (cf. 1.33), i.e. communicating to the world the Spirit, symbolized by the mysterious water flowing from the pierced side of the Crucified One, like the source of which Zechariah spoke and which Ezekiel saw: “and behold, water flows from under the threshold of the Temple” and transforms the shores of the Dead Sea into a new paradise (Ezekiel 47.1 -12; Rev. John 22.2). Of course, a Christian, even one born of God, can fall into sin again (1 John 2. 1); but Jesus “is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2.2), and He gave the Spirit to the apostles precisely so that they could “forgive sins” (John 20.22 ff).

The greater abundance of verbal expressions allows Paul to even more accurately distinguish “sin” from “sinful deeds,” most often called, in addition to traditional figures of speech, “sins” or misdeeds, which, however, does not in any way detract from the seriousness of these offenses, sometimes conveyed in the Russian translation by the word crime. Thus the sin committed by Adam in paradise, about which it is known what significance the Apostle attributes to it, is alternately called “crime,” “sin,” and “disobedience” (Rom. 5.14). In any case, in Paul's teaching on morality, a sinful act occupies no less place than in the Synoptics, as can be seen from the lists of sins so often found in his epistles. All these sins exclude you from the Kingdom of God, as is sometimes directly stated (1 Cor 6.9; Gal 5.21). Exploring the depth of sinful actions, Paul points to their root cause: they are in the sinful nature of man an expression and external manifestation of a force hostile to God and His Kingdom, about which the apostle spoke. John. The mere fact that Paul actually only applies the word sin to it (in the singular) already gives it special relief. The Apostle carefully describes its origin in each of us, then the actions it produces, with accuracy sufficient to outline in basic terms the real theological teaching about sin.

This “power” seems to be personified to some extent, so that sometimes it seems to be identified with the person of Satan, “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4.4). Sin is still different from it: it is inherent in a sinful person, in his internal state. Introduced into the human race by the disobedience of Adam (Rom 5.12-19), and from here, as if indirectly, into the entire material universe (Rom 8.20; cf. Gen. 3.17), sin entered all people without exception, drawing them all into death, into eternal separation from God, which the rejected experience in hell: without redemption, everyone would form a “condemned mass,” according to the expression of the blessed one. Augustine. Paul describes at length this state of a person “sold to sin” (Rom. 7.14), but still capable of “finding pleasure” in goodness (7.16,22), even “wanting” it (7.15,21) - and this proves that not all it is perverted - but completely incapable of “making it” (7.18), and therefore inevitably doomed to eternal death (7.24), which is the “end”, “completion” of sin (6.21-23).

Such statements sometimes bring upon the Apostle accusations of exaggeration and pessimism. The injustice of these accusations is that Paul's statements are not considered in their context: he describes the condition of people outside the influence of the grace of Christ; the very course of his proof forces him to do this, since he emphasizes the universality of sin and enslavement by it with the sole purpose of establishing the impotence of the Law and extolling the absolute necessity of the liberating work of Christ. Moreover, Paul recalls the solidarity of all humanity with Adam in order to reveal another, much higher solidarity that unites all humanity with Jesus Christ; according to the thought of God, Jesus Christ, as a contrasting prototype of Adam, is the first (Rom 5.14); and this is tantamount to asserting that the sins of Adam with their consequences were tolerated only because Christ had to triumph over them, and with such excellence that, before setting out the similarities between the first Adam and the last (5.17), Paul carefully notes their differences (5.15 ). For the victory of Christ over sin seems no less brilliant to Paul than to John. The Christian, justified by faith and baptism (Gal. 3.26), has completely broken with sin (Rom. 6.10); having died to sin, he became a new creature (6.5) with Christ who died and rose again - “a new creation” (2 Cor 5.17).

Gnosticism, which attacked the church in the 2nd century, generally considered matter to be the root of all impurity. Hence the anti-Gnostic fathers, such as Irenaeus, strongly emphasize the idea that man was created completely free and I lost my bliss due to my guilt. However, very early there is a divergence between the Eastand the West in building on these themes. WesternChristianity was more practicalcharacter, always supported eschatological ideas, thought about the relationship between Godand man in the forms of law and therefore occupying The study of sin and its consequences was much more than that of the East. Already Tertullian spoke of “damage”, arising from the first initial vice. Cyprian goes further. Amv Russia is already of the opinion that we all died inAdam. And Augustine finishes these thoughts toend: he resurrected Paul's experiences, his doctrine of sin and grace. And it was this Augustine that the Western Church had to accommodate. just when she was getting ready assert their dominance over the world of barbarians. WHO niklo original “clutch”opposites" - a combination in oneand the same church of ritual, law, politics, power with a subtle and sublime teaching about sin and grace. Theoretically difficult to connect twopractical directions found in life combination. The Church, of course, changed the content of Augustinianism and pushed it into the background. plan. But on the other hand, she always enduredthose who looked at sin and graceAugustine. Under this powerful influence standseven the Council of Trent: “ If anyone does not admit that he is the first man, Adam, when Bo's ban was violated alive..., immediately lost his holiness and righteousness, in which it was approved, ...and in relation to the body and souls have undergone a change for the worse, that yes will be anathema. And at the same time practicethe story supported a different order of views. Suppressed by thoughts of sinfulness in the Middle Ages God thought of God as a punishing Judge. Fromhere is an idea of ​​the importance of merit and satisfactions. In fear of punishment for sin, the laitynaturally thought more about punishments andmeans to avoid them than about eliminating sin. The punishment served not so much to gain the Father again in God, but rather to avoid God the Judge. Lutheranism is emphasized there was a dogma about original sin. Apology of the Augsburg Confession states: “After the fall, instead of morality, evil lust was innate to us; after the fall, we, as born from a sinful race, do not fear God. In general, original sin is both the absence of original righteousness and the evil lust that came to us instead of this righteousness.” The Schmalkaldic members assert that the natural man is nothas freedom to choose good. If he allows If it is the opposite, then Christ died in vain, for there was no would be the sins for which he had towould die, or would he die only for the sake of the body, and not for the sake of the soul." Formula of consent quotes Luther: “I condemn and reject as a great error every teaching that glorifies our freedom bottom will and not calling for help andgrace of the Savior, for outside of Christ our lords death and death."

The Greek-Eastern Church did not have to endure such an intense struggle over questions of salvation and sin, which flared up between Catholicism and Protestantism. It is noteworthy that until the 5th century for The East turns out to be alien to the doctrine oforiginal sin. Here are religious claims and tasks remain very tall and bold for a long time yim (Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great). This and other circumstances created a shortage to certainty in the doctrine of sin. "Sin itself does not exist in itself, since it was not created by God.Therefore, it is impossible to determine what it is consists,” says the “Orthodox Confession” (question, 16). "In the fall of Adam man destroyedthe perfection of reason and knowledge, and his willturned towards evil rather than good” (question,24). However, “the will, although remained intactin relation to the desire for good and evil, however, has become more inclined towards evil, in others for good” (question 27).

The Fall deeply suppresses the image of God without distorting it. It is the similarity, the possibility of similarity, that is seriously affected. In Western teaching, “animal man” retains the foundations of a human being after the Fall, although this animal man is deprived of grace. The Greeks believe that although the image has not faded, the perversion of the original relationship between man and grace is so deep that only the miracle of redemption returns man to his “natural” essence. In his fall, man appears to be deprived not of his excess, but of his true nature, which helps to understand the statement of the holy fathers that the Christian soul, by its very essence, is a return to paradise, a desire for the true state of its nature.

The main causes of sin are hidden in the wrong structure in the wrong direction of the mind, in the wrong disposition of the feelings and in the wrong direction of the will. All these anomalies point to race structure of the soul, determine the stay of the soul in state of passion and are the cause of sin. In patristic writing, consider every sinappears as a manifestation of the passion living in a person. With an incorrect structure of the mind, that is, with a vicious view of the world, perceptions, impressions and desires acquire the character of sensual lust and pleasureDenia. An error in speculation leads to an error in planning.practical activities. Practical consciousness that has fallen into error affects the feelings and will and is the cause of sin. Saint Isaac the Syrian speaks of the ignition of the body with the fire of lust when looking at objects outside world. At the same time, the mind, designed to restrain, regulate and control the functions of the soul and lustflesh, he willingly stops in this state,imagines objects of passion, gets involved in the play of passions,becomes an intemperate, carnal, indecent mind.St. John Climacus writes: “The reason for passion isfeeling, and the misuse of feelings comes from the mind.” A person's emotional state can also because of sin and influence the intellect. In the statein the event of an inappropriate disposition of feelings, for example, in a relationship standing of passionate emotional arousal, whether the mind the ability to carry out realistically correct moral assessment of the situation and control over actions actions taken. Saint Isaac the Syrian points tosinful sweetness in the heart - a feeling that permeates everythinghuman nature and making him a prisoner of the sensual passions.

The most serious cause of sin is intentionalbut an evil will that deliberately chooses disorder andspiritual damage in your personal life and in the lives of others. Unlike sensual passion, which seeks timesgreat satisfaction, embitterment of the will makes a sinner even more heavy and gloomy, since it is a more constant source of disorder and evil. People became susceptible to sensual passion and prone to evil after committing ancestral sin, the instrumentwhich the devil was, therefore he can be considered an indirect cause of all sin. But the devil is not unconditionalthe cause of sin in the sense that it seems to force the human will to sin - the will remains free and even untouchable. The most I can do the devil is to tempt a person to sin by acting oninternal feelings, prompting a person to think about sinfulobjects and focus on desires, which promise forbidden pleasures. St. John Cassian the Roman says: “Neitherwho cannot be deceived by the devil, except the one who himself wishes to give him the consent of his will.”Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes: “Diathe ox is able to offer, but is not able to impose ourchoice” – and concludes: “We choose sin ourselves.” Saint Basil the Great sees the source and root sin in human self-determination. This thought found clear expression in the views of St. Mark the Hermit, expressed in his treatise “On the Holy Baptismnii": "We need to understand what sin makes us dothe reason lies within ourselves. Therefore, from ourselves depends on whether we listen to the dictates of our spirit and learn them, whether we should follow the path of the flesh or the path of the spirit... for in our the will to do something or not to do.”

See: Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Edited by Ks. Leon-Dufour. Translation from French. "Kairos", Kyiv, 2003. Pp. 237-238.

See: Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Edited by Ks. Leon-Dufour. Translation from French. "Kairos", Kyiv, 2003. Pp. 238; "Bible Encyclopedia. Guide to the Bible." RBO, 2002. Pp. 144.

Hilarion (Alfeev), abbot. “The sacrament of faith. Introduction to Orthodox Dogmatic Theology". 2nd edition: Klin, 2000.

See also: Alypiy (Kastalsky-Borodin), archimandrite, Isaiah (Belov), archimandrite. "Dogmatic Theology". Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1997. Pp. 237-241.

Men A., archpriest. “Dictionary of bibliology in 2 volumes.” M., 2002. Volume 1. Page 283.

Men A., archpriest. “Dictionary of bibliology in 2 volumes.” M., 2002. Volume 1. Page 284-285.

"Dictionary of Biblical Theology". Edited by Ks. Leon-Dufour. Translation from French. "Kairos", Kyiv, 2003. Pp. 244-246.

"Dictionary of Biblical Theology". Edited by Ks. Leon-Dufour. Translation from French. "Kairos", Kyiv, 2003. Pp. 246-248.

See: "Christianity". Encyclopedia of Efron and Brockhaus. Scientific publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia", M., 1993. Pp. 432-433.

Evdokimov P. “Orthodoxy.” BBI, M., 2002. Pp. 130.

See: Plato (Igumnov), archimandrite. "Orthodox Moral Theology". Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1994. Pp. 129-131.

Read a verbatim summary (audio transcript) of Professor A. I. Osipov’s lecture.
(5th year MDS, November 5, 2012) Download mp3 from the official website

12. About the Fall of Man

Spirituality of Man Before the Fall.

Man in his primordial state was not infected with passions. Nothing arose in his soul that would contradict the will of God, contradict his nature, God-created nature, God-like. He was the image of God, pure, unsullied by sin. This is the first.

Second. He was not just a soul, but a soul and a body. His very body and flesh were spiritual. What does it mean? Before the Fall of man, not only the soul, but also the body itself was spiritual. What is the spiritual body? A non-spiritual body cannot walk on water - it will drown right away. Remember, Peter tried, poor thing, - and then, - Ay, God save me, I’m drowning! But we know from the history of the Church that there were many such cases: the same Mary of Egypt crossed the Jordan, for example. For Christ, when He resurrected, there were no barriers. The spiritual body has properties that we do not have now, since everything with us is sinful.

So, before the Fall, the first people had a spiritual body, not just a soul. Ephraim the Syrian writes: “Their robes are light, their faces are radiance. Judging by the name of paradise, one might think that it is earthly, but in its power it is spiritual and pure. And the spirits have the same names, but the Holy [spirit] is different from the unclean. The heavenly fragrance satisfies without bread, the breath of life serves as drink. Bodies containing blood and moisture there attain a purity equal to that of the soul itself. There the flesh rises to the level of souls, the soul rises to the level of spirit. They were not ashamed because they were clothed with glory - heavenly clothing. God did not make man mortal, but he did not create him immortal either.”

We can observe the primordial state of man by the state of the flesh of the risen Christ. This is precisely the state in which primordial man was.

The Necessity of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Why did God plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The father will not leave matches for the child in the house, especially knowing that the child, of course, will take these matches and begin to set fire to everything. What is it here? God planted a tree whose fruit He knew.

Firstly, it is quite understandable that the father hides the matches; he would never have brought these matches home if he did not need them. God specially planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Secondly, he warned the person. Thirdly, God knew perfectly well that the fruit would be plucked. He knew, he planted it, he warned – that is, the situation is completely different. These are not matches, this is something else. What is this different?

Speaking about the first man, it must be said that the first man, before the Fall, not only did not know what evil was, but also did not know what good was. When is goodness assessed? Only when we see what evil is. There is a wise thought: what we have, we don’t keep, and when we lose it, we cry. Only when we have lost do we cry and understand what good we had, what good we had. A healthy person looks at a sick person and cannot understand anything. The young man looks at the old man - how can it be possible to walk like this, bent over, and even with sticks in his hands, and even just barely, and hurting everyone in the world - nothing is clear how this can be.

This is a psychological moment that is present in a person: without knowing evil, we cannot appreciate good, or even understand that it is good. A healthy person cannot understand what a disease is if he has never been sick. So here, the first people did not know what good was, because they did not know what evil was. They found out only later.

So, God planted this tree on purpose. That is, this tree had a direct positive meaning for humans. Which one? A person has sinned - so what? Expelled from paradise, and this terrible history of mankind began. What is the positive value? Without knowing evil, we cannot appreciate good - this is the key to understanding this fact. Man was called to a godlike state, but in order to receive this state, or rather, to appreciate this state, he must know who he is, on his own, without God.

Remember, having eaten the fruit, you hid from God. God himself walks around paradise: “Adam, where are you?” These images are very beautiful, wonderful, they express the essence! "Adam, where are you?" - hid from God, just as we hide from God, from our conscience, when we violate what our conscience directly speaks of, directly protests.

Man didn’t even imagine, didn’t know, and couldn’t know who he was without God’s help. Human nature was in direct, closest communication with God. Not by external communication, but by spiritual communication, a person is permeated with this spiritual spirit. Man, it turns out, was already by nature, to some extent already God-human, such is his nature, then his nature could be normal, not having death, not having any undue deviations, being in this spiritual unity with God. It was natural human condition.

This tree, this eating of the fruit, revealed to man, firstly, what evil is. Evil is being outside of God, without God. God is being. And suddenly the person fell out of the sphere of this existence. Of course, he didn’t fall out completely, but he lost his spiritual involvement with God.

As a result of the Fall, man fell out of the atmosphere of God's spiritual influence. To what extent did it fall out? The Holy Fathers say that this is not about the fact that he completely lost his free will - no. He didn't lose his freedom. The image of God remained in man, but his mind, his will, his feelings, his body turned out to be distorted. All these parameters turned out to be distorted and damaged. And we see this damage constantly, at every step: how can we run after miracles and forget about what is going on in our souls.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not the matches of the father, but a means through which only man, having known evil, having learned what it is, that is, having known who he is, departed from God, understood it, seen it, realized it, voluntarily, freely , turn to God. Without knowing the bitter, you cannot appreciate the sweet. The man was free, God warned him: look, you will die. And no violence, no violation of free will: look, man. He freely chose this path. Also freely, without the slightest violence on the part of God, he was called, having understood the misfortune of his condition, to turn to Him.

The meaning of a person’s entire earthly life from first to last is nothing more than the knowledge of evil and good. Through the knowledge of evil, the knowledge of good, by good meaning the need for unity with God, with the source of all good.

We, possessing freedom and reason, it turns out, we cannot, without getting burned on milk, not blow on the water. Do you know who we are? There are some by nature, they die as children. They will apparently be able to take advantage of the experience of other people and accept the good of the Kingdom of God that is promised to every person, without harm to themselves.

The pride of the first people is the root of original sin

If we were now given all the blessings of the Kingdom of God - everything, do you know what would happen? Revolution in the Kingdom of God! Which? Exactly the same as what happened to the first people. Which one? “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The Hebrew idiom “knowledge of good and evil” means knowledge of all things. Just as God knows everything - and you will know everything.

What is knowledge of everything? This means complete power, complete domination. What passion is there - the search for complete power? - pride.

We are constantly convinced with amazement, with chagrin, with indignation, with condemnation when we see that a little man, raised one step, is already beginning to crush other people under himself. And if it’s two steps, or three – oh my God! Run like fire!

This is the original root of sin that is present in us - power, domination. Knowledge of good and evil, knowledge of everything and dominion over everything - it turns out that this is what it is, what kind of sin it was. Man saw himself as the master of the entire created world. Remember, God brought everything created and man gave names to everything that exists. Is it clear what called names are? Naming names has been a sign of power since slave times.

The man saw himself as the ruler of this world and could not stand it. I saw my power, my greatness, my glory in this created world. I saw this, and, poor thing, I still didn’t know who he was without unity with God. This is what happened to the man. This is the temptation of power, domination. This is the most terrible thing that lives in us. Why do all the holy fathers unanimously, the Holy Scripture itself says: God opposes the proud.

Pride is the root. How important it is to catch this in yourself and suppress it, avoid this nastiness, your superiority. How often, when we see ourselves a little higher than others, we begin to go crazy. If only they thought - how many people are taller than me and have this, that, and that?

This is the most terrible temptation that will engulf and defeat the one we talked about - the Antichrist. He will see that there is no one else who would possess everything that he possesses: strength, power, dominion, and the creation of wonders and signs. He has no equal. Here, poor thing, I got caught, poor thing! He got caught and thought he was a god.

So that's why God planted this tree. Without the knowledge of evil and good, man could never appreciate the good that God is. Just as a healthy person does not value his health and takes it for granted, so here, without tasting evil, a person could not accept the Kingdom of God as it should, he would become proud. And even if he had stayed, if God had left him with his power, he would have become proud. This wild idea of ​​knowledge of everything and dominion over everything (I am the master, not you, I am God, and I no longer need you, God) led to a confrontation between man and God.

This is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is. This is a terrible temptation that has come into the human soul. And he succumbed to it. But why did he succumb to it? He didn't know what evil was, he didn't know who he was without God. That is why his fall from grace did not turn out to be absolutely radical, irrevocable - no. Unknowingly this happened. But this ignorance, if you like, turned out to be blessed, because through it we, Adam and everyone who finds themselves in the elements of this world, continuously learn good and evil. We continually experience it in ourselves and in others and in all of humanity. And this knowledge will ultimately give humanity the opportunity to accept God. Having seen that God is only love, there is no violence, only love and nothing more. This is how true acceptance of God and salvation will occur.

This is very important for understanding what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is and why it was planted.

Damage to human nature as a result of the Fall

What happened to human nature after the Fall? The Holy Fathers here, expressing themselves differently, say, in principle, the same thing. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is that the holy fathers even talk about damage to the image of God, about damage to nature. Other fathers say: no, nature cannot be damaged, the image of God cannot be distorted. What are we talking about here? About different ways of expressing what happened to a person. What happened to him? - this is very important.

What does patristic thought say? This was expressed especially well by St. Maximus the Confessor and a number of fathers. In this case, what is important is what all fathers agree on. The man turned out to be mortal. Before the Fall, he, being in an immortal state, was potentially capable of death. Potentially - this means that having sinned, he becomes mortal. While there, he was immortal. Having sinned, he becomes mortal.

So, the first and most difficult thing: a person becomes mortal. Maximus the Confessor says: “Mortality, perishability...” By perishability we mean all the processes that occur with our body and which are obvious to everyone. We see how a person changes from childhood to old age. Look at the portraits of a cute child, a young girl, a boy, and see what happens in old age: beyond recognition. Corruption is a gradual process of dying.

The third thing that Maximus the Confessor calls is the emergence in man of so-called sinless passions, or, as elsewhere, blameless passions.

Impeccable Passions

In this case the word passion used in an etymological meaning, that is, from the word suffering. If before this a person could not even have suffering, the flesh was even spiritual, and nothing could cause him suffering, then from now on it began! Already the fear of God, already an attempt to hide from Him, they already saw that they were naked! Let's quickly get dressed! Next comes hunger, cold, and the need for food and nutrition, temperature. That is, the person found himself surrounded on all sides. And the slightest change in the conditions of his existence brings him suffering. The animal world itself rebelled against man. Man was the absolute master, here he had to defend himself and avoid.

This is impeccable passion. Blameless means not sinful. There is no sin in the fact that we feel cold, hunger, thirst. Because people want to get married, there is no sin in that.

Sin is a violation of one's nature

Sin occurs when we cross moral boundaries. And instead of eating, gluttony begins, instead of drinking, drunkenness begins. There are some reasonable needs for nature, natural needs for nature, and there is something that goes beyond these reasonable limits. In religious language this is called sin, but let us translate it into ordinary human language. It turns out that when a person crosses the boundaries of natural use, he begins to do unnatural things. What is unnatural? Nature is nature, nature is my state. It turns out that I am starting to fight against myself.

What is bingeing - what is it, you need to ask any doctors - and so we know! Drunkenness – what is it? – natural or unnatural? - punishes himself. That's what sin is.

This is very important for us now. Sin is not a violation of God's law - God gave us laws, I broke them, now wait, how many lashes will they give you: 10, 20, 40? No! Sin is an unnatural act against one’s nature, one’s nature.

Nature is my nature, I start cutting, stabbing, frying or freezing myself. Oh, how sweet this is! This, it turns out, is what the passion that has arisen is.

Passion here and in another sense. It turns out that a person’s will has weakened, he has ceased to be able not to violate the laws of his human nature. Soreness struck him. Sin is an unnatural phenomenon.

The rejection of God by the first people led to irreversible consequences

So, mortality, corruption and irreproachable passion - this is what arose in man. Moreover, irreversible processes have occurred. It started with the first couple Adam and Eve. If you want, processes have taken place, of a genetic order, irreversible.

I have to draw this image. A diver goes under the water, he has a hose through which air is supplied to him. In the Red Sea he admires the beautiful fish and swims in this oasis of beauty. And suddenly he received a command from above: Get up, that’s enough! He: it’s me, to get up from here - uh, no! He grabs the cutlass and cuts off this wire and hose. What's going on, he can't breathe now! That's it, he dies! They pulled the poor thing out, pumped him out, but irreversible processes had already occurred. He seems to be both alive and not alive, dead and you won’t understand what.

Now, irreversible processes have occurred in man. Resulting in? He cut off the wire that connected him to God. For man does not exist on his own, but he exists only in unity with God. We are now in an unnatural state. We are cut off from God, we are in the state of what happened there as a result of the Fall.

So, passion, decay and mortality have become the lot of all human existence. But, I repeat once again, not reproachful, not sinful passion. The soul by nature can be dispassionate if it does not sin. But the fact of the matter is that a person violated the moral norms, the spiritual norms of his existence, therefore, in addition to these changes - decay, passion and mortality, something else happened in him, changes of the spiritual and moral order occurred. There was a distortion of the human soul itself, which affected the mind, the heart, and the body - it affected everything.

John Chrysostom says that it was sin – Adam’s disobedience – that was the cause of general damage. Basil the Great says: “The Lord came to unite human nature, which had been torn into thousands of parts. The man has fallen into discord." Maximus the Confessor writes: “Man must learn what the law of nature is and what the tyranny of passions is. Not naturally, but randomly invading him due to his free consent. And he must preserve this law of nature, keeping it in tune with natural activity, and expel the tyranny of passions from his will and by the power of reason preserve his nature immaculate, in itself pure, untainted and free from hatred and discord.” [Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer]

So, we have looked at what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is, for what reason such a perversion of our nature happened to man, and what, ultimately, means this state in which we find ourselves. This is necessary in order to understand what Christ did.

To understand what Christ did, we turn to the question of the Incarnation. After all, He came to save man, that is, human nature. What could God do with man? After all, to sin or not to sin is his freedom, and God does not concern freedom. God does not use any violence towards man in spiritual and moral terms. This means that we may not be talking about his freedom, but about the state of nature. How a person sinned is a moral act, and changing nature is an act that in itself cannot be assessed as moral or immoral - it is simply its state.

What is sin? The Lord came to save from sin. But God does not violate freedom. How can He save from sin? This is what I want or don’t want. I am free. Freedom remained after the Fall. What are we talking about then?

Personal sin is committed deliberately

Word sin one thing, but it has several meanings. Here are the values ​​to keep in mind. The first thing that needs to be said is about personal sin. Personal sin is entirely determined by a person’s freedom; it depends on whether to commit it or not to commit it. But here, too, not everything is so simple. If I am used to drinking, and although I know that it is a sin, I can no longer help but drink. How am I here: do I do it freely or not?

It turns out that this is the kind of situation. There is a stage of sin in which I am free. So far I am not at all attracted to wine. But I know, I see what happens to people if they start abusing. And here I can completely freely allow myself or not to drink more or less. I am free. But if I still freely surrender to this desire to drink more and more, I become a slave. And then I am no longer free. This is what is already called passion. Why is it called passion? Not only because I am irresistibly attracted to him, but also because it brings me suffering. The wine of joy begins to bring suffering. And this is certainly true, like any passion and any sin.

So, personal sin is a sin that is committed freely, consciously. And when a person does not sin freely, this is a sign that he has violated before, and therefore he is responsible for his passions. Not because now he can’t, but because before, when he could, he didn’t do anything.

On discerning the severity of personal sins

So, this is the first and very important characteristic - personal sin. Moreover, this personal sin, again, can be purely personal. I judge someone inside myself, I envy someone - no one sees it. I am becoming greedy inside myself, no one can see this yet. This is one sin, one category, one level.

This same sin becomes immeasurably more serious when I commit it publicly, when I infect others. Christ spoke about this with such force that it becomes scary. It is better for such a person who seduces another or others to have a millstone hung around his neck and drowned in the depths of the sea. Wow, what a burden! It’s one thing when I sin within myself, and it’s quite another thing when I involve other people in this sin.

Now you understand how much the responsibility of each person increases when he reaches a higher level of social, political, church life, when he becomes a priest, bishop, and so on. How much responsibility increases! It’s not for nothing that they say: “Look, priest, and look how he behaves! Or the bishop, and how he behaves!” It seems, on the one hand, so what, what’s your business, he’s the same person. In fact, we feel in our gut that what is being committed here is not just a personal sin, but a personal sin here, but squared. You are already seducing many others! This causes severe wounds to many people.

Therefore, you see, personal sin turns out to have different levels. But not only in this direction, but also in another. The same sin that I commit in myself can have different degrees of severity. I can judge in different ways. I have dislike for some people, and anger for others.

Also in external terms. I can deceive just like that, in a trivial way. Saw? - Saw. But in fact, I didn’t see it – it’s a trifle. But I can deceive you in such a way that I lead a person into a terrible storm of life, into a real tragedy. I can let a person down so that I don’t know what will happen to him, having deceived him. Promising and not delivering. And there is only one sin - deceiving.

“Father, I cheated.” “You cheated?!” And a man committed suicide because of you!” Wow, he was “deceiving”! This, my dear, was not just deceiving. You see how different the degree of sin in a person can be. One and the same, but what's the difference? - colossal.

So, personal sins can vary in severity. Then, “public” sins can be very dangerous: I offend many. Church sins, when a person staying in the church violates those rules of life and seduces not only someone outside, but can even damage the church itself. Look, there's a split. When a few people imagine themselves above everyone else and go against everyone, declaring that they understand Orthodoxy better than everyone else. This is what concerns personal sins.

The Holy Fathers have very important, interesting thoughts on this issue. I just want to say that personal sin is the source of other sins that are not sin. How do you like it? This is what the situation is like. I already told you that there is only one word - sin, but what is hidden behind it is something else. So, when I said that it is not a sin, then what are we talking about?

Original sin

Firstly, about the so-called original sin. Not the ancestral sin, that is, the one that the ancestors committed when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but about what befell all of humanity, starting with these first people. So, here original sin is called sin. What it is? This is damage to human nature. This is called sin, but what kind? - not a sin for us, we are born with it, we are not guilty of this, we have nothing to do with it. But this original sin was the result of what? - Adam's personal sin.