Fall of Man

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Michelangelo : The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise ( ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel )
The serpent hands Eve the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, Church of San Michele de Murato (12th century), Corsica

Christian theology describes an event that is partly literally but mostly symbolically interpreted as the fall of man , which in the Bible ( Gen 3  EU ) refers to the consumption of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge (actual tree of knowledge of good and evil) by the first Human couple ( Adam and Eve ) is described. She interprets this at the same time as the original sin that founded the history of the calamity of mankind ( Latin peccatum originale originans ). The history of disaster based on this is called original sin (lat. Peccatum originale originatum ) in analogous use of the concept of sin , insofar as every person is “born” into this story as a descendant of Adam and is thus pre-burdened in his own history of freedom. The history of doom “from Adam” is contrasted with the history of salvation of mankind “towards Christ ”, who is understood as “the new Adam” ( Rom 5,12-21  EU ).

Origin of the concept of the fall of man

According to the Christian understanding, the term “Fall of Man” originated in the late Jewish 4th Book of Ezra . Already Paul had the Romans derived the death of the first sin: "Through one man sin entered into the world and by sin death, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." ( Rom 5, 12  EU ) Esra makes the same deduction and sighs: “Oh, Adam, what have you done! When you sinned, your fall came not only on you, but on us, your descendants! ”(4 Ezra 7,118)

Gen 3  EU forms the first of the four prehistoric stories of failure of fratricide ( Gen 4.1–16  EU ), of relationships between angels and people ( Gen 6.1–4  EU ) and of the Tower of Babel ( Gen 11.1–9  EU) ). They express fundamental biblical statements about the nature of man and humanity. However, the first error is fundamental insofar as with it the paradisiacal " Garden of Eden " as the epitome of unity with God or the access to eternal life abundance in the "Tree of Life" ( Gen 3:22  EU ) is lost and man is now lost with the animal “fur dress” ( Gen 3.21  EU ) the story of mortals begins between birth and death.

In this respect, the fall of man in the "disobedience" of the first Adam is the cause of death, while in the "obedience" of the second Adam life is recreated with the resurrection "until death on the cross" ( Rom. 5 : 12-21  EU ; Phil 2 , 8  EU ). Augustine of Hippo developed the doctrine of original sin from Paul's interpretation .

While the new Adam voluntarily descends from his heavenly “height” and “humbly” puts on the “slave garment” of the human-earthly “flesh” ( Phil 2,7  EU ; Joh 1,14  EU ; Mt 11,29  EU ) so that the “Fallen” people regain their original “garb of light” of glory and immortality (cf. Eph 4.24  EU ; 1 Cor 15.53f.  EU ; Col 3.10  EU ), the old Adam falls through his arrogance. Jesus' saying, which has been handed down many times over, is about the fall of man in this sense: "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humiliates himself will be exalted" ( Mt 23.12  EU ; Lk 14.11  EU ; 18:14 EU ; see 1.48.52 EU ).

Further interpretations

In exegesis today, the concept of the fall tends to be avoided. According to the exegetical commentary by Andreas Schüle, the meaning of the two trees in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is “an ultimately unsolvable riddle” among the church fathers and in medieval mysticism both trees stand for the two sides of reality: heaven and world, the invisible and the visible (cf. Col 1,15–16  EU ), the “masculine” and the “feminine”, also grace and sacramental “matter” as well as spiritual - spiritual and "literal" exegesis.

In the Hexaemeron (XIX, 8) , Bonaventure explains the miracle of transformation at the wedding at Cana ( Jn 2,1-11  EU ): “The letter [of the Scriptures] alone is only water, which is only transformed into wine in the spiritual understanding; it is stone that must first become bread ”; and: it is only the tree of the knowledge of good and bad; "Only in the spiritual understanding does scripture become the tree of life". It is crucial to combine the literal understanding of Scripture with the inner understanding in the Holy Spirit, whereby the Bible is the living word of God (= tree of life) or “like a zither”: “the deep string [= literal sense ] only works with the others [three spiritual writing senses] together the melodious sound. "

What applies to the Bible as “creation in the word” ( Friedrich Weinreb ) also applies to creation through the word (cf. Joh 1,3–4  EU ; Hebr 1,3  EU ; 11,3 EU ): Only if the visible and the invisible are one in the “wedding” covenant, man lives in the heavenly reality created by the divine Word or in “heaven” (cf. Col 1,13-20  EU ; 3,1-2 EU ; Eph 2, 6  EU ). The break of this “wedding” covenant between the “male” and the “female” or “being one flesh” (cf. Gen 2.24  EU ; Eph 5.30–31  EU ) by man and woman leads to the Loss of paradise or the fullness of life. In celebration of the seven sacramental signs of the Catholic and Orthodox Church, especially in Baptism and the Eucharist and in marriage as a "sacrament" (John Paul II.), The tradition saw the cure to return to the lost paradise (see. Already Lk 23 , 43  EU ). Added to this is the spiritual and spiritual discipline: "That is the meaning of all asceticism: to renew the paradisiacal order in Christ."

Based on a text by Nietzsche, the text offers itself apart from theologically or spiritually intended interpretations of the “Fall of Man” also to a psychohistorical interpretation . In Friedrich Nietzsche's work " On the benefits and disadvantages of history for life ", published in 1874, humans are compared to animals in a parable. Nietzsche apparently reminiscent of the expulsion from paradise when he writes: “It takes man as if he were thinking of a lost paradise, to see the grazing flock or the child who has not yet denied anything past and between the fences the past and the future plays in blissful blindness. ” In his choice of words, Nietzsche implicitly places the historical essence of man, that is, the reference to time in his life, in a context of expulsion from paradise. Assuming this human trait, eating from the tree of knowledge can be understood as an image of the specially acquired human ability to cognize temporality and thus finitude. In the parable of the Fall, the serpent foretold that if he ate from this tree he would not die, but could distinguish between good and bad. Contrary to the announcement of God, however, and according to the announcement of the serpent, man does not die after eating, but begins to recognize. However, the announcement wasn't that it would die immediately after being eaten. But in order to get to that knowledge, he had to be able to see cause and effect, i.e. the temporality (and thus finitude) of all life. Shame - symbolized in hiding from God - sets in when the human being becomes aware of the consequences of his own - including his previous - actions from his hitherto purely present state. And the fear of man - also condensed in hiding from divine power - begins in the awareness of his own temporality: until the food from the tree of knowledge he did not know about the security and inevitability of death. But now he is the only being who, torn from the paradisiacal state of reduction to a present life, knows of the sure dying of all living things - and therefore also of his own death. Humans are the only living beings who have been driven out of paradise. He lives in "fear of God". But the human being cannot relinquish the capacity for knowledge, it is passed on from generation to generation: He is condemned to knowledge, to becoming aware of what he is doing - and therefore also to “sin” in his human limitations. Even though this is theologically intended exaggeration in the concept of " original sin ", man experiences in this as well as in his limited power the unconditional differences to what constitutes the Abrahamic image of God. Any rebellion against his limitation, for example by further intensifying his endeavors to gain knowledge of the worldly context and increasing his own authority, seems against the background of the “fall of man” not to be redemption from his burden, but his progressive ruin. In this interpretation, the biblical story becomes a parable about the nature of man who, in love with the god-like ability to know, tries his luck again and again and yet fails. If man can be understood in his essence as "sinful", namely erroneous, this interpretation comes close to the understanding in the Reformed churches in that they relate the concept of sin less to the individual wrongdoing than to the essence of man. It is true that the interpretations of the fall of man in the various Christian traditions differ greatly from this interpretation (and from one another). Since the described understanding of the fall of man can also make it clear that in the human self-image his insurmountable separation and distance from God becomes clear, this interpretation is in turn close to a basic Christian understanding of the parable, despite its rather secular intention. However, it is precisely in the question of separation or distance from God that the problem of the concept of God becomes clear, which is symbolized in the very different conceptions of the Abrahamic religions and denominations. In this interpretation, the parable of the fall of man represents a central biblical passage for the agnostic reader too , if in it a symbol for the impossibility of a more comprehensive human knowledge of God becomes as clear as the longing for his existence.

Evolutionary interpretation

In 2016, the orangutan researcher Carel van Schaik and the historian Kai Michel interpret the Bible as a diary of evolutionary human development. In doing so, they attach fundamental importance to the Neolithic Revolution : This transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer groups to sedentarism , combined with the beginnings of agriculture and livestock farming, gave rise to the principle of property (compare property theories ). Van Schaik and Michel describe the Fall of Man as the first property offense : “In Paradise God only issued one commandment: 'You may eat from all trees in the garden, but you should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.' It is significant that it is precisely a violation of property that is presented as an original sin. Among the hunters and gatherers, a tree belonged to whoever eats from it. Property is a consequence of sedentarism. "

According to this interpretation of the Bible, the real fall into sin consisted in people becoming settled. But because it was a step in evolutionary biology, "all interpretations that bring morality into play would be obsolete".

The story of paradise and the song of songs of love

Cardinal Jean Daniélou writes about the meaning of the Old Testament Song of Solomon for the catechesis of Baptism and the Eucharist of the Fathers of the Church: “The echoes of the Song of Songs [in the catechesis of the Sacraments of Initiation] are unmistakable: 'The flowers appear' (2.12 EU ), 'the Oil has been poured out '(1.2 EU ),' the king brings me into his rooms' (1.4 EU ). The catechumens stand on the threshold of the royal garden, the paradise where the wedding will take place. It is already blowing the air of paradise. […] Agape is completed in the eucharistic union . The same thought recurs elsewhere in Theodoret ; He relates the expression 'wedding day' [3.11 EU ] to the Eucharist and writes: 'When we eat the body of the bridegroom and drink his blood, we enter into a nuptial union (κοινωνία) with him.' In the entire catechetical tradition, the Song of Solomon is therefore regarded as a preliminary representation of Christian initiation. "

In the Song of Songs, the “(pleasure) garden” or “nut garden” is mentioned eight times ( Hld 4.12–16  EU ; 5.1 EU ; 6.2.11 EU ). In Jewish mysticism, the nut is a symbol of the twofold nature of writing: the outer shell stands for the literal sense of writing and the inner fruit for the spiritual sense, analogous to the human soul and body. She regards the Song of Songs as a positive counterpart to the story of paradise and as the “extreme compression, core of the core” of the first story of creation, as the melody of creation: “The loss of Queen Shulamith must be viewed as the loss of creation. All creation has been lost in exile [through the Fall]. ”But when“ the miracle 'Word' ”breaks through,“ The king finds the queen again, Solomon finds Shulamith, the connection [of the covenant] is established, God finds creation again. And that is the actual creation of man ”.

The psychology has studied these passages and found their own interpretations (see this:. Archetype of the tree ).

Quotes

“All human history has been misled, broken because of Adam's misconception of God. He wanted to be like God. I hope you never saw Adam's sin in this ... Didn't God invite him to do it? Adam was only wrong about the example. He believed that God was an independent, autonomous, self-sufficient being; and to become like him he rebelled and disobeyed. But when God revealed himself, when God wanted to show himself who he was, he appeared as love, tenderness, an outflow of himself, infinite pleasure in another. Affection, dependence. God showed himself obedient, obedient until death. In believing that he would become God, Adam deviated completely from him. He withdrew into solitude, and yet God was fellowship. "

- Louis Evely : Manifesto of Love

literature

  • Klaus W. Halbig: The Tree of Life; Cross and Torah in a mystical interpretation. Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-429-03395-8 .
  • Willibald Sandler : The forbidden tree of paradise. What the Fall is all about. Kevelaer 2009, ISBN 978-3-8367-0689-6 .
  • Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition. Zurich 2 2002; esp. pp. 331–401 (The Tale of the Two Trees), ISBN 3-88411-028-4 .

Web links

Commons : Fall of Man  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Fall of Man  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Knapp, Melanie Wolfers: Faith that tastes of freedom . Pattloch, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-629-02227-1 , p. 70 .
  2. ↑ Andreas Schüle: The prehistory (Genesis 1–11) . Theological Publishing House, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-290-17527-6 , pp. 62 .
  3. ↑ Bonaventura: Hexaemeron , Latin-German Edition, translated and introduced by Wilhelm Nyssen; Munich 1964; XIX, 7.
  4. ↑ Friedrich Wulf: Spiritual life in today's world. History and practice of Christian piety ; Freiburg u. a. 1960; Pp. 18–33 (Paradise lost and regained), here p. 30.
  5. ↑ Nietzsche, F .: On the benefits and disadvantages of history for life. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1980
  6. ↑ Eirund, Wolfgang: The death of life: self-knowledge as the fall of man . No. 1/2012 . International Journal of Philosophy and Psychosomatics IZPP, 2012 ( Izpp.de [PDF; 301 kB ]).
  7. ↑ Carel van Schaik and Kai Michel: The diary of mankind: What the Bible reveals about our evolution . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2016, ISBN 978-3-498-06216-3 .
  8. ↑ Carel van Schaik , interviewed by Holger Fröhlich: Expelled from Paradise. In: The time . August 15, 2018, accessed March 30, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Clemens Klünemann: The Incarnation of God begins in the Holocene. In: NZZ.ch . December 21, 2016, accessed March 30, 2020 .
  10. ^ Jean Daniélou: Liturgy and Bible. The symbolism of the sacraments among the Church Fathers ; Munich 1963; P. 193–208: Das Hohelied, here p. 195f.
  11. ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; Zurich 2010; ISBN 978-3-905783-66-7 ; Pp. 183, 305 f.
  12. ↑ Louis Evely: Manifesto of Love ; in: The Lord's Prayer ; Freiburg 1961, p. 26; see. Y. Congar: ways of the living God ; Freiburg 1964; P. 93.