Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Fall, The

FALL, THE, a term used of the first sin of Adam, and hence often called “the fall of Adam,” with which “original sin” his posterity are held to have had mysteriously to do; on which account we often meet with the term “the fall of man.” The verb “to fall” is often used in a generic sense in Scripture for a lapse into sin (Ezek. xliv: 12, Rom. xiv: 13, I Cor. x: 12, Rev. ii: 5. The substantive is not used equivocally in the same sense. “The Fall” is therefore a theological rather than a scriptural term. According to the Biblical narration, God created man in His own image (Gen. i: 27), like the rest of creation “very good” (i: 31). In the midst of the garden of Eden, in which the first parents of our race were placed, was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This they were forbidden to eat on pain of death, all other trees being freely granted them for food (ii: 16-17). Beguiled by the serpent, Eve first yielded, and then, at her persuasion, Adam ate the forbidden fruit (Gen. iii: 1-6); after this they feared to continue communion with God (8-10), had sentence pronounced against them (16-19), and were expelled from the blissful garden (24). In the New Testament it is indirectly hinted that the devil used the serpent as a mouth-piece, whence he is called “that old serpent . . . which deceiveth the whole world” (Rev. xii: 9), and “the dragon that old serpent” (xx: 2), and is said by our Lord to have been “a murderer from the beginning” (John viii: 44).