Augustine, Original Sin

The Literal Meaning of Genesis: Augustine

Book III, Chapter 22: "Woman, in so far as she has a rational mind, is made to the image and likeness of God."

Here, Augustine explained and argued against certain beliefs regarding the creation of man and woman. He argued against the notion that both sexes appeared in one single human being. He supported his argument with the text. In the text, the author said "He made them... and He blessed them." Thus, the plurality was a direct indicator that two creatures were created rather than a single one.

Also, Augustine elucidated that notion that man's spiritual body was created initially and later, as in a separate event, God gave man a physical body. He supported this by saying that man was "formed" from the slime of the earth, or dust, and before this, God created man, referring to the spirit of man. But what he also explained was that this mind of man contained two entities, masculine and feminine, since man and woman were created together. Thus, the feminine and masculine spiritual entities made up the entire spirit of a human being. The masculine, he explained represented the "contemplation of eternal truth" and the feminine established "administration of temporal things," respectively. Here, he acknowledged that the truth was related to God, and thus, man was the image and likeness of God. However, the feminine part, he argued, was the "glory of man." In other words, the feminine side should obey the masculine, or truth, quality of the human spirit. In other words, the masculine part of the spirit, the part that decides what is rightful and truthful must rule over the feminine part, the more emotional aspect of the human spirit. Thus, Augustine explained that human actions were controlled by this duality of opposing spirits, and it was up to humans to decide what part of their spirit to live by.

Book VI, Chapter 5: "Second hypothesis: In the creation of the six days, God created all living things, including Adam and Eve, potentially and in their causes. From these causes God later created them in their visible forms."

Augustine immediately argued against this statement, considering it was a complete contradiction of the text, since male and female were created together in the first Genesis story. Male and female were created together, and thus were not separately created. However, this referred to the spiritual aspects of men and women, rather than the physical. After their spirits were created, God formed the physical bodies of men from dust and woman from man's rib.

Book IX, Chapter 3: "The woman as a helper. God's plan for procreation."

Augustine agreed that woman's main purpose was for the procreation of children, since the first Genesis story explicitly stated that God commanded humans to reproduce. However, Augustine also believed that, despite the fact that Scripture stated that Eve and Adam did not have sexual intercourse until after they were expelled, the pair had sex in Paradise, when sex had no negative consequences, such as the painful pregnancies. God gave them this blessing the moment they were created, and thus, it was almost certain that the two had sexual intercourse before they were expelled. In fact, it was only after they were punished that sex had negative repercussions. Thus, it was apart of human nature, according to Augustine, for the two to have sex, since it caused pleasure, had no negative consequences, and God allowed them to do so.

Book IX, Chapter 5: "In what sense Eve was made as a helper for Adam."

Here, Augustine discussed why he believed that woman had no other purpose besides procreation. He argued that woman could not help man in work and labor, since men were physically dominant over woman. Also, he explained that if God wanted to give Adam a friend or companion that would merely converse with Adam and share a life with him, why would God choose a woman and not a man, who, Augustine argued, would make a much better choice, considering man's physical dominance and closer resemblance to Adam. Though Augustine had valid arguements, he forgot one reason that men would rather have a woman, and that was the desire for sex. Because it was apart of human nature to desire sexual pleasure, and since Eve was the answer to this, the creation of women could have been for both procreation and a means of satisfying the desires of Adam.

Book XI, Chapter 30: The exchange between the serpent and the woman."

Augustine argued that Eve was not tricked, but willingly committed sin when she decided to believe the snake. He argued that because she reiterated God's command, and thus, knew what God had said, this made her sin more serious. Thus, this revealed yet another aspect of human nature, the ability to make choices, and humans were able to disobey. He also argued that the reason why woman decided to eat it was not because the snake said it was okay to do so, but because she thought the tree looked "good for food and a delight to behold." Thus, this revealed another aspect of human nature, superficiality. Humans tend to only see what is on the outside, rather than analyzing the inner workings of life. Because the tree looked good, the woman decided to eat from it, and because she did not die, Adam agreed to eat it as well. Thus, the only thing keeping the humans from eating from the tree was not God's command, but because God said that they would die. Since the snake convinced them they would not die, they decided to eat from it. They did not care about obeying God's orders.

Book XI, Chapter 34: "Adam, hiding himself in shame, is called forth by God."

Augustine argued that the reason God asked Adam first was because God already knew what had happened. He asked the most innocent of the three sinners, Adam. If one had to rank the three based on innocence, it would be Adam as the most innocent, then Eve, and then the snake, considering that the snake caused Eve to sin, who caused Adam to sin.

Book XI, Chapter 35: "The excuses of Adam and Eve."

Here, Augustine revealed that both Adam and Eve did not own up to their sins. Rather than telling God directly that they had disobeyed him, they pointed fingers at others, making excuses. Thus, Augustine believed that this passage exemplified another aspect of human nature, the tendency for mankind to make up excuses rather than owning up to their mistakes. Augustine also noted that because Adam and Eve made up excuses, it revealed that they knew they had sinned and disobeyed.

Book XI, Chapter 37: "The sentenced pronounced on the woman."

Augustine argued that the text demonstrated that Eve had not had children before she had been punished, and thus, all humans who Eve would have borne (had she not eaten from the Tree of Knowledge) would live a life without suffering and death. Thus, Augustine believed that Eve was the direct cause of the mortality of man. However, one should note, that nothing indicated that mankind was immortal when created. Furthermore, why would God force humans to multiply if they were immortal, considering that procreation was a process nature had in order for species to survive? In other words, if God told humans to multiply and all humans were immortal, an overpopulation of humans would flourish, causing problems. Thus, reproduction would not be necessary if humans were immortal.

Book XI, Chapter 41: "Theories about the nature of the sin of Adam and Eve."

Here, Augustine explained that the aspect of human nature that caused the pair to sin was their desire to acquire knowledge. Furthermore, Augustine also discussed the theory that argued the Tree of Knowledge represented sexual intercourse, and thus, God punished Adam and Eve for having sex before they were ready. However, this seemed inplausible considering that God had ordered males and females to reproduce, and sexual intercourse was the means of doing so.

Book XI, Chapter 42: "Did Adam believe the words spoken through the serpent? How was he tempted to sin?"

Augustine argued that the snake could not have convinced Adam to disobey God. Rather it was the spiritual aspect of man, the "female" aspect, that caused Adam to disobey. Because he had emotional attachment towards Eve, Adam chose to believe Eve, not wanting to upset her and thus, be rejected by her. Augustine believed that this part of men caused Adam to sin, because he believed that the emotional and sexual aspects of man can overshadow their knowledge. Adam did not want to become alienated from Eve, so he decided to eat like she instructed him to do. Augustine also considered the possibility that Adam ate the fruit because he realized Eve did not die, and thus, did not want Eve to have knowledge that he did not know.

pg. 80 Midrash: Berakoth 61a

Here, the rabbi reflected on what was meant by the text when it said God "formed" man. He proposed that, because the Hebrew word for form had two "yods", one good and one evil, this meant God created two inclinations one good and one evil. This may be an extreme interpretation, considering that many believe that man consisted of both masculine and feminine spiritual aspects. Thus, one could interpret that God decided one spiritual part of the man was good and the other, whether male or female, was evil.

pg. 98 Midrash: Gen Rab 23: 5

This passage implied that Adam had not experienced desire until his wife was created. Thus, woman was the sole source of sexual desire. This notion that sexual desire, whether positive or negative, originated entirely from the creation of women seemed far-fetched. However, it does make sense, since Adam did not have desire to have sex until Eve's creation. Despite this, this sexual desire seemed engraved within Adam's instinctual nature, and thus, immediately when he saw Eve, he was attracted to her. Thus, Eve was not the cause of his sexual desire, but rather Adam's human nature.

Original Sin and Human Nature: Reaction to Jesus as Rescuer

Original Sin was the Catholic belief that all humans were born sinners and with this "original sin" of Adam and Eve within them. It was also the belief that humans would suffer and eventually die as a result of the sins of Adam and Eve. It assumed that, because all humans were born with sin, it was human nature in itself to sin and only care about one's one well-being rather than how one's actions would effect others. In other words, all humans were like Adam and Eve, who were inclined to disobey when they did not think their actions would have any consequences. When Eve realized the fruit would not kill her, she saw that the fruit was desirable and pleasing to the eye. Despite the orders given to Adam by God, Eve could not resist eating the fruit. And Adam, seeing that Eve had not died from eating the fruit, could not resist either. Thus, the instincts of Adam and Eve to sin were passed on to all generations of humans. As such, human nature, according to the author, was intrinsically evil.

It was believed that through Jesus Christ's suffering and death on the cross, humans were given the opportunity to shed their sins, including this original sin they were born with, and thus, achieve eternal life in Heaven. In other words, if one followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, one would live forever in paradise. The author argued that this was an outdated and dangerous concept. Because of this original sin, humans were guilty, selfish, jealous, the list goes on. In other words, Christians believed that through Jesus they were cleansed of this original sin, and thus were no longer subject to the evils of human nature. This was obviously not true, considering that plenty of righteous people are not Christians and plenty of evil individuals were brought up as Christians.

I believe that human nature is intrinsically both good and bad. I believe there are multifarious common qualities human beings possess that have both negative and positive connotations. All human beings have experienced temptation, and all human beings must learn from experiences in order to determine what is right and wrong. It is not naturally engraved within one's spiritual and physical entity to automatically know what is right and wrong. Rather, humans learn from their mistakes and adapt to various environments.