CONTRADICTIONS: Who Was First Responsible For Original Sin Entering Mankind?
Hoo-boy, this is an important alleged contradiction in the Bible because it concerns one of the most basic facts of human existence — why is it pretty much everybody has done or thought about doing or been tempted to do things which in retrospect we regret, feel guilty about, or are outright ashamed?
Basically, the alleged contradiction is this: At I Timothy 2:14 scripture assigns responsibility to Eve for eating from the tree of life – forget those apples artists routinely show because the Bible doesn’t identify it as such — while Adam is the goat at Romans 5:12.
In other words, at I Timothy 2:14, we are told:
“For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor …”
While in the Romans passage, we are told what appears to be something completely opposite:
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men1 because all sinned …”
So, was it Eve or Adam?
According to the Domain for Truth, this particular alleged contradiction is an important illustration of a basic fact that is too often forgotten when folks start discussing and/or debating examples where the Bible gets it wrong:
“When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions, it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another, so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.”
Are these two verses mutually exclusive? Is there never any way in which they might both be true at the same time? Well, as a matter of fact, the answer in both questions is a hearty no, and here’s why, according to Domain for Truth:
In order for these two passages to be contradictory, they must both say “Only Adam” or “Only Eve” was responsible for opening the way for the entry of Original Sin into the human race. But note that neither of them say that.
Second, Genesis 3 is the source material for both of the New Testament verses and Genesis 3 makes it abundantly clear that both Adam and Eve are held responsible by God for violating His commend to not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life.
Domain for Truth points to a third consideration here as well:
“According to Genesis 2:15, it says ‘Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.’ The verb ‘keep’ is best translated from the Hebrew as ‘guard.’ Adam was supposed to protect the garden of Eden. That means he should have not let Eve sinned by eating of the fruit.
“He’s failed in this area as a leader. He further failed by eating the forbidden fruit himself as well. So Adam is to be blamed for not only eating the forbidden fruit but also for his failure of leadership.”
Put another way, one could say Adam bears a double responsibility.