Event Old Testament
The fall
Also known as The first sin, Eden lost
Tempted by the serpent, the woman and the man ate from the one tree God had forbidden. Shame, blame, and curse followed, and they were sent out of the garden. In the same scene God spoke the first promise: the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent's head.
Why it matters. The fall explains why the world needs rescue and why the rest of the Bible is a story of God coming after His people. Paul reads Adam's disobedience and Christ's obedience as the two hinges of human history.
- Primary passages
- Witnesses
Chronology confidence: low
Genesis narrates the event in the garden without dating it. Christian traditions read the account with differing emphases on its literary form, but all historic traditions hold that a real rupture between humanity and God took place.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
Connections
Creation precedes The fall
Explicit in ScriptureHigh confidenceThe fall follows the creation and the placing of the pair in the garden.
Evidence:The fall precedes The call of Abraham
Explicit in ScriptureHigh confidenceGenesis moves from the primeval history of chapters 1 to 11 to the call of Abram in chapter 12.
Evidence:Adam participates in The fall
Explicit in ScriptureHigh confidenceThe man eats the fruit his wife gives him and is banished from the garden.
Eve participates in The fall
Explicit in ScriptureHigh confidenceThe woman is deceived by the serpent, eats, and gives the fruit to her husband.
Evidence:The fall occurs at Eden
Explicit in ScriptureHigh confidenceThe temptation happens in the garden, and the couple is driven out of Eden afterward.
Evidence:The fall develops the theme Promise and fulfillment
Explicit in ScriptureHigh confidenceIn the judgment on the serpent God speaks the first promise of a coming victory by the woman's offspring.
Evidence:The fall develops the theme Sacrifice and atonement
Historic Christian readingMedium confidenceGod clothes the guilty pair with garments of skin, which many Christian readers have taken as the first hint that covering sin costs a life. The text itself does not explain the garments.
Evidence:Other responsible views
- Provision, not sacrifice: Some interpreters read the garments simply as God's practical care for the pair outside the garden, without a sacrificial meaning.