In the early chapters of Genesis, humanity’s proliferation soon leads to trouble: people quickly disobey God, leading to widespread conflict, violence, and death. This disharmony suggests that human beings are meant to obey God in order to live in harmony with him and one another. This is because disobedience is rooted in mistrust of God—as especially shown by the story of Eve listening to a crafty serpent instead of obeying God. As a result, Adam and Eve are expelled from their peaceful home in the garden of Eden, symbolizing the state of disobedient humanity as a whole—separated from God and therefore subject to suffering and death. By showing how mistrust of God leads to disobedience, or sin, the author of Genesis argues that sin leads to disruption and breakdown of human relationships—with God, with each other, and with creation.
Genesis underscores that humans are required to trust and obey God. When God places Adam in the garden of Eden, he gives the man a condition: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Until now, death has not existed. God gives Adam a prohibition—he can’t eat from a certain tree. If Adam doesn’t obey God, Adam will die. The serpent (a talking animal who lives in the garden) deviously casts doubt on what God told Adam and Eve. The serpent says to Eve, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden? […] You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” By suggesting that God hasn’t told Eve everything, the serpent plants a doubt in Eve’s mind about God’s intentions for her and Adam. Hearing this, Eve eats the fruit and shares it with her husband, and “Then the eyes of both were opened[.]” That Eve gives in to the serpent’s hints suggests that she doesn’t trust God. When they disobediently eat the fruit, Adam’s and Eve’s eyes are further opened to the idea of rebellion against God, something unthinkable when they lived in harmony with God.
As Adam and Eve’s story shows, distrust and disobedience (or sin) brings disharmony and death into the world. As a consequence of Adam and Eve’s mistrust and disobedience, God places a curse on all of humanity: “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing […] and [your husband] shall rule over you.’ And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife […] cursed is the ground because of you […] By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread […] you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Sin brings conflict between the man and the woman; it makes toil more difficult, and worst of all, it leads to death. Whereas creation had begun harmoniously, that harmony has now been broken because of human sin.
At first, humanity enjoyed a dependent relationship with God in the garden, wherein God provided everything for the human beings who trusted in him. Now, because of the curse, humanity must fight for existence, rather than enjoying a life of peaceful reliance on God. God says, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil […] therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.” Now that trust has been broken, with humans presuming to question God’s wisdom and loving provision for them, they will be forced to fend for themselves.
Genesis ultimately suggests that sin and its curse (death) are hereditary. Adam and Eve’s sons Cain and Abel illustrate the violence and disharmony that come about because of human sin. When the brothers each offer sacrifices to God, God favors Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s, and Cain kills his brother out of jealousy. When Cain lies to God and says he doesn’t know where Abel is, God sees through the lie and declares that Abel is cursed. “When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth,” God says. The story of Cain and Abel echoes their parents’ expulsion from Eden in a number of ways. Once-harmonious relationships—both the brothers’ relationship and their respective relationships with God—are disrupted because of human refusal to accept God’s word (in this case, regarding God’s preference for one type of sacrifice over another). The disruption leads to further disharmony between humanity and the earth (“it will no longer yield to you its strength”), as well as a sentence of “wandering.”
The breakdown of harmony between humans and God, humans and one another, and humans and creation is summed up in the story of the flood, just two chapters later. When humanity descends into further corruption, God decides, “I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.” However, by preserving Noah and his family in an ark, God still offers hope for humanity’s survival and for harmony to be restored.
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Mistrust, Disobedience, and Death ThemeTracker
Mistrust, Disobedience, and Death Quotes in Genesis
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD.
God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth […] As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth […] I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
[Joseph’s brothers] said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” […] So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. […] When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy's life, when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became surety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame in the sight of my father all my life.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord in place of the boy; and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father.”
When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father! Since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused, and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”
Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?” […] Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.
