GBBW: Genesis 3
an important bummer of a story
Welcome to week 2 of the GBBW! You may remember that our first 10-ish stories will come from the Pentateuch, which means we’re in Genesis 3 today.
On the one hand, this is the first time I’ve had the chance to try out a paraphrase for this story that doesn’t assume this was a literal event, and yet it’s deeply important and true. On the other hand, it’s hard to come up with a Genesis 3 game! (Where it landed has strong Bluey vibes.)
This is a story where we simply cannot cover it all, because it connects to the various theologies around sin. This makes it a prime story to use the principle: something true, at their level, you can build on later.
So please, use the comments to open up the related pieces that aren’t included here!
The story of humanity’s “Fall” is one that has had soooo many layers of interpretation built upon it in the thousands of years since it was first written. Of course we all bring our own set of lenses to the story (and to the Bible overall), and interpret it through those lenses.
We all have interpretive lenses. And so our hope, with any story, is to a) be aware of what they are and b) have good ones.
But sometimes those lenses are actually cloudy, and get in the way of us seeing what the story itself does and doesn’t say. This is especially common with Genesis 3 because certain interpretations are presented Loudly and Forcefully as The Only Ones.
But maybe we can reassess which interpretations we can let go of, which lenses we can take off in favor of better ones.
Which is why we definitely need to bring back our semi-regular newsletter feature: Fancy Theological Jargon!
Today we’re looking at four Theological Jargon terms that don’t actually show up in this story, but that are often held up as the whole point of the story. Since they are not, I repeat are not, actually in this store they don’t need to be how we interpret it for our kids.
Fancy Theological Jargon: Sin Words Edition
“Sin Separates us from God”
Perhaps you’ve heard that before? Once or twice? If these are the lenses you’re using to interpret this story may I suggest taking them off and smashing them under the nearest heavy object?
To put it as plainly as I can, this idea is false and damaging, and it is literally the opposite of what this story says. The humans in this story get separated from the garden, I suppose, but certainly not God. God comes seeking them out immediately after their sin, cares for them with animal skins, and continues to be in close communication with them into the next chapters of Genesis.
This idea, and its close cousin “God cannot be in the presence of Sin”, are contradicted by God’s repeated, consistent action of coming close to us. The Word becomes flesh and lives among us. Jesus walks around with and interacts with sinful people for 30+ years. While we were still sinners Christ died for us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Why not interpret Genesis 3 through those lenses?