The third chapter of Genesis gives the fullest account of this
awful tragedy in the experience of mankind. Other scriptures: Rom.
5:12-19; I Tim. 2:14; Gen. 6:5; 8:31; Psa. 14; Rom. 3:10-23.
The purpose of the Genesis narrative is not to give an account
of the manner in which sin came into the _world,_ but how it
found its advent into the _human race_. Sin was already in
the world, as the existence of Satan and the chaotic condition of
things in the beginning, strikingly testify.
The reasonableness of the narrative of the fall is seen in view of
the condition of man after he had sinned with his condition when
he left the hand of the Creator. Compare Gen. 1:26 with 6:5, and
Psa. 14. If the fall of man were not narrated in Genesis we should
have to postulate some such event to account for the present
condition in which we find man. In no part of the Scripture, save
in the creation account as found in the first two chapters of
Genesis, does man appear perfect and upright. His attitude is that
of rebellion against God, of deepening and awful corruption.