Consequences of the Fall. Spiritual and psychological aspects of the Fall

III The Fall and its consequences. The location of paradise The stay of the first people in paradise was their stay in direct communication with God, which was the first and most perfect religion of the human race. The outward expression of this religion was the church, as a congregation

The Fall- the first human crime associated with the violation of God’s commandment about not eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which entailed catastrophic consequences both in relation to the person himself and in relation to the world around him.

Primordial people were morally pure and innocent. Their mental and physical state fully corresponded to God’s plans for man. The ancestors did not experience the slightest disorderly movements in their souls, they had no desires for evil. So that they could consciously and freely make their moral choice, and then establish themselves in Good, God appointed them a test, gave them, informing them of the consequences of possible disobedience: “You will eat from every tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” from it, for on the day that you eat from it you will die” ().

Formally, he offered Eve the same thing as the Lord - likeness to God, because God also calls: “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (). However, there is a fundamental difference between the call of the Creator and the offer of the devil.

The only path to becoming like God is the one that is based on selfless obedience to God, the acquisition of holiness: “Be holy, because I am holy” (). This path not only cannot be passed at once and suddenly, it has no end at all, because God is infinite in His perfections.

The devil offered man the exact opposite: a means of instant likeness to God and autonomy, independence from the Creator. After all, if a person, having tasted the fruit, really became like God, then he would no longer need God (as God).

Adam and Eve, who knew from the Master what good and evil consisted of, nevertheless did not recognize the catch. Instead of cutting off the tempter from the threshold or at least being on guard, Eve, and then Adam, took the bait, believed the lies and rejected God. This is the depth of their sin. The fact that they had no prior experience with deceit does not justify them. After all, the Lord did everything to make keeping the commandment easy and doable for them.

Firstly, this testing commandment was not even positive, but negative in nature, that is, it did not oblige one to perform a difficult, burdensome action, but prohibited an easy one. Having imposed a ban on eating fruits from only one tree, God allowed people to eat fruits from many other trees, so the ancestors did not experience a shortage of good and tasty food.

Secondly, as the saint noted, “God did not allow Satan to send... any Angel or Seraphim to Adam. Or Cherub. He also did not allow Satan to come to the Garden of Eden in human or divine form... It was allowed for the serpent to come to them, who, although cunning, is immeasurably despicable and vile. The serpent, having approached the people, did not perform any real miracle, did not even take on a false appearance, but appeared in the form that it had: he appeared as a reptile, with his eyes drooping down, because he could not look at the radiance of the image of the one he wanted to tempt "(Rev. Ephraim the Syrian. Interpretation of the book of Moses Genesis, chapter 3).

The Fall led to a terrible result:
- man’s relationship with God has gone wrong,
- person to person,
- a person with the outside world;
- man himself went wrong, becoming corruptible and mortal, prone to evil, susceptible to the influence of demonic forces.

Having violated the commandment, a person had to experience the effect of the Divine sentence: “On the same day you will die” (Gen. 2:17). Bodily death - the separation of soul and body - followed for Adam 930 years later, but spiritual death - the separation of the soul from God - occurred immediately. The man lost grace and the first thing he saw was that he was naked, and the first thing he felt was shame. “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves and made aprons for themselves” (Gen. 3:7). Of course, before this they were not blind, but the Divine grace that illuminated their bodies hid nakedness from their eyes, so no carnal thoughts desecrated the mind of their ancestors. Now the human mind, according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, like an overturned mirror, instead of reflecting God, takes on the image of formless matter. Passions shake the original hierarchical structure of the human being.

The darkening of the minds of the ancestors was manifested in the fact that they tried to hide from the Face of God among the trees of paradise, forgetting about Divine love, and about the omnipresence of God, and then about His omniscience: they tried to justify themselves. In addition, the person was overcome by sinful thoughts.

The human will becomes hardened in sin: instead of repentance, the forefathers choose crafty self-justification and reveal hostility towards God. Their will lost its holiness and became more prone to evil, since the law of sin was established in it.

The darkening of feelings was reflected in the fact that instead of filial love for God, they experienced slavish fear of Him. Instead of mutual love, they first felt lust, that is, they saw each other as an object of selfish pleasure, experienced shame, and then enmity towards each other - Adam blames Eve and God for everything. Thus, sin divides not only man and God, but also people among themselves.

The darkening of the mind, will and feelings of the ancestors are signs of spiritual death, which a person suffered as a result of the Fall. Spiritual death was not an act of revenge on the part of the Creator, but it became a natural consequence of the separation of man from God.

Spiritual death led to the disorder of human nature. All the forces of his soul received an inappropriate direction, inclined towards evil, towards passions. The mind forgot its true nutrition, spiritual knowledge and clung to the feelings, at the same time it fell into spiritual blindness, the passion of ignorance of God and divine things, it lost the ability to contemplate the divine, to see spiritual truth, to mysteriously soar to God. Reason (“logos”) lost the power of moral guidance over the irrational forces of the soul - sensual desire and irritability - and submitted to their disorderly movements, which prompted a person to strive only for pleasure and avoid suffering. Having escaped the control of reason, the irrational forces of the soul turned into “unnatural” passions. This is the term of St. Maximus the Confessor, who distinguishes sinful passions from “natural passions” - hunger, thirst, fatigue, etc., which were also adopted by human nature after the Fall, but unlike the former, they are “impeccable,” that is, non-sinful. The power of desire has become the passion of carnality, and the power of irritability has become the passion of violence, prompting the struggle for worldly goods, means of pleasure and expressed in hatred of everything that interferes with pleasure and causes suffering.

Thus, man fell into the power of carnal pride. Error in the truth and attachment to feelings, passionate love or hatred for anything sensual filled his life and constituted in him the law of the flesh, the law of animal life, subordinate to carnal wisdom.

Physical death

Having torn himself away from the Source of Life, man voluntarily put himself in a state that was supposed to lead to the disintegration and corruption of the human being. He exposed himself to suffering, illness and death. These so-called natural (or physical) consequences of the Fall are completely justified from a moral perspective. Sin is subject to punishment. God punishes our first parents for sin in order to heal their voluptuousness and pride.

If at first man reigned over the world, now nature has become hostile towards man. The earth lost its former strength of fertility and began to grow thorns and weeds. If earlier labor on the earth did not tire a person, now he had to work by the sweat of his brow to get food for himself. Destructive elements began to act in nature, causing damage, sometimes negating the hard human labor invested in cultivating the land. Man began to suffer from climate change, from heat and cold.

Animals stopped recognizing their master in man. Among them appeared predators dangerous to humans. And man himself became coarser; he was forced to kill animals in order to obtain the necessary material for clothing and his home. The relationship between man and the world around him is changing. Man no longer becomes a master, but mainly a consumer, a tyrant of nature. Finally, death in passions and suffering completes the gradual decay of a person. He who chooses dust instead of God returns to dust.

Thus evil shakes the entire cosmos, and this process develops and is irreversible. To restore the previous harmony, the world needs fiery cleansing. The present elements of heaven and earth will be burned in the purifying fire of the Second Coming, after which there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:10-13).

Dressing in “leather vestments”, i.e. into mortal nature, subject to decay, is a natural result of the Fall. However, the book of Genesis says that God Himself clothes man with these garments. From this, of course, it does not follow that God creates death and corruption. God is not the Creator of evil. On the contrary, He is the only one who can turn evil into good. And He always acts out of love. As St. Maximus the Confessor writes: “God acts out of love even towards those who have become evil, carrying out the work of our correction.” And He uses the current situation to benefit the sinner. This is like the second side of the “leather vestments”. It traces the action not only of justice, but also of love and God’s care for the fallen ancestors.

By allowing death to exist, God turns it against corruption, which leads to death, and sets a limit to both corruption and sin. This is how God limits evil and makes the fall not hopeless. His original plan for the eternal and blessed life of man remains unchanged. Commenting on this mystery of boundless Divine compassion, St. Gregory the Theologian says that God allows death to exist “so that evil does not become immortal.”

Clothing in coarse flesh deprived a person of the opportunity to communicate with the spiritual world and greatly weakened his ability for spiritual knowledge. However, this was of considerable benefit, for, due to the sinful direction of his will, man could only communicate with demons, but not with Angels, and especially with God. Rough flesh, like a veil, hides a person from the direct influence of the spirits of evil.

Marriage as we know it today did not appear until after the Fall. Passionate birth from semen in the image of animals became an integral part of that biological, bestial life to which man was condemned. The force of this condemnation was especially great. Together with conception, combined with sensual pleasure, both the sin of will and the weakness of nature were transmitted. Birth became a channel that introduced a person from the very beginning of his existence to the flow of sinful life. Therefore it is synonymous with original sin.

The condition of fallen man became very sad and completely hopeless. Human life began with the unjust pleasure of conception, this rudimentary development of passions, and ended with a well-deserved death. However, God used this seemingly hopeless reality, created by sin, for the purposes of His All-Good Providence. Thanks to marriage, man not only retained the ability for biological survival, not only received the consolation of having offspring, which in themselves overcome the diseases of childbirth (John 16:21), but, most importantly, the fallen man was promised immediately after the fall that from his posterity there will be a Savior who will break this vicious circle of sinful life (Gen. 3:15).

Original sin

The Orthodox Eastern Church has always understood original sin as that “seed of aphids,” that hereditary corruption of nature and the tendency to sin, which all people receive from Adam through birth. Conception and birth are the channel through which ancestral damage is transmitted. “Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother gave birth to me in sin” (Ps. 50:7), exclaims David, and the Apostle Paul directly connects the sinful corruption of human nature with the sin of our first parents: “Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, [because] all have sinned in it” (Rom. 5:12).

Thus, original sin is a hereditary damage to the human mental and physical nature, the general tendency of people to sinful acts.

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 them, among the labors and hardships of a sinful life, the very memory of its exact location was erased over time; 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: that 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.