The Sin of the First Man

Adam’s sin could not have been a sin of the flesh. For in the state of innocence there was no rebellion of flesh against spirit. Therefore, the first inordinateness in the human appetite could not possibly have been a desire for any material or sensible good. The first human sin must have been connected withthe desire for some spiritual good. And, since the actual desire must have been ordinate (because inordinateness did not come into man until the first sin was committed), the inordinateness musthave been in the thing desired. This thing must have been something beyond the reach or above the mark of a human being. And to aspire to such a thing is pride. Hence, the first human sin was a sin of pride. The ordinate desire of the first man was made inordinate bythe unsuitableness of a too-excellent object, and the desire was thus transformed into a prideful aspiring.

The first sin, a sin of pride, was the first man’swillful desire to have something that belongs to God alone. It maybe said that man, made in God’s image, tried to extend undulythat image in himself. In particular, the first man wanted”knowledge of good and evil,” so that, by his own natural power and without reference or deference to God, he could know what was good or evil for him to do, and could know beforehand what good and evil would happen to him. Thus, in a fashion, the first manaspired to a kind of equality with God, and so he sinned by pride,even as the fallen angels sinned by pride.

Was the sin of our first parent more grave than other human sins? In itself, as we have seen, pride is the greatest of sins. Yet there are degrees of pride, and many sins of pride, as acts performed, are not more than venial sins. And even in grave sins of pride there are rank and scale: the pride of denying or blaspheming God is more grave than the pride of coveting the enlargement in oneself of the divine image. Therefore, taken simply as a sin of pride, the sin of Adam was not the most grievous sin of its kind. Nor was Adam’s pride more grievous in itself than the pride of other men. But when we consider Adam’ssin, not simply or absolutely, but in relation tothe one who committed it (a perfect man, with a nature entirelyuntroubled by unruly passions, and dowered with most wonderful supernatural gifts and graces) we must conclude that this was indeed the most grievous of all the human sins of pride. Therefore,summing the matter up, we say: taken simply or absolutely, the sin of Adam was not the most grievous of human sins; taken relatively (that is, in relation to the state of perfection of the sinner), it was the most grievous of sins.

The sin of the first woman was, in itself, more grievous than the sin of the first man. For while Adam and Eve both sinned by pride, Eve believed the devil, God’s enemy, and, in full awareness that what the devil suggested was against God’s will,she ate the fruit to obtain the sort of knowledge that belongs to God alone. The sin of Adam did not spring from trust in the devil; Adam wanted the inordinate good and wanted it pridefully, but notinasmuch as it was clearly seen in opposition to God’s will (as devil-inspired), but as aspired to by his own unaided power. Further, the woman not only sinned, but tried to lead the man tosin; she sinned both against God and neighbor. Yet it is Adam’ssin, not Eve’s, that brought deprivation and punishment upon the race, and is “the original sin.”