The Bible begins with the book of Genesis, in which we read that the first humans, Adam and Eve, were forbidden on pain of death to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Nevertheless, beguiled by the Serpent, they did so and were duly punished (by exile from Eden and eventual death).

Their story is a parable, intended to make a point. But what point?

According to The New England Primer (1687–90), “In Adam’s fall / We sinned all.” Adam (and, one presumes, Eve) sinned by disobeying God—and somehow or other, that sin has become (to speak anachronistically) part of our DNA, inherited by each and every one of us and dooming us all to hell were it not for the redemptive death of Christ on the cross. That is, more or less, the traditional Christian doctrine of Original Sin.

But another seventeenth-century author, John Milton, puts the matter somewhat differently. The subject of his epic poem Paradise Lost (1674 version) is “Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit / Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste / Brought Death into the World, and all our woe … .” Milton speaks of “disobedience” but not of sin. And, indeed, neither does this episode of the book of Genesis. The word sin itself does not appear until the story of Cain and Abel.

So the question is: By eating the forbidden fruit, did Adam and Eve sin? I claim they did not. Although one could argue that in the Bible (at least in the Old Testament) the chief sin is in fact disobedience, Adam and Eve could not have known that their disobedience was a sin. Why not? Because it was not until after their disobedience that they gained the knowledge of good and evil that enabled them to identify disobedience as a sin!

Let me offer an analogy. If you tell your favorite puppy not to chew your slippers but it does so anyway, it has disobeyed you but not sinned. A puppy has not acquired the requisite knowledge of good and evil. The puppy may merit punishment, but not eternal hellfire. Nor do its descendants stand in need of redemption through the sacrifice of a dog god.

Unfortunately, there was no one in Eden to plead the innocence of Adam and Eve. Such a defense attorney might also have suggested to his clients that they should resort to a remedy that might well have got them off the hook: a show of repentance and a plea for forgiveness. Adam speaks of fear and blames Eve; Eve blames the Serpent. Neither Adam nor Eve says simply “I’m sorry for what I’ve done; please forgive me.”

Who knows what would have happened had they done so? Critical discussions of Christopher Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus have noted that in his fear of hell for having sold his soul to the devil, Faustus invokes God but does not ask forgiveness: “O I’ll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down?” At most he urges what might be called a limited damnation: “O God, / If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul … / Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years, / A hundred thousand, and at last be saved.” At no point does Faustus simply cry “Save me, God!” But divine forgiveness is not mentioned in this part of Genesis.

I say that the Eden Two were innocent (of sin, anyway). It may be late in the day, but they deserve a posthumous pardon. As for us, our sins are our own and not inherited. And perhaps Jesus could have climbed down from his cross and joined our celebration.

P.S. In Genesis there are two significant trees in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, which confers immortality. Curiously, though Adam and Eve are forbidden to eat the fruit of the former, they are not forbidden to eat the fruit of the latter.

P.P.S. According to Jack Miles (God in the Qur’an):

Adam and Eve in the Quranic version immediately repent of their sin and throw themselves on the mercy of Allah and Allah forgives them on the spot. They do have to leave paradise, but if they live a good life then at the Last Judgment they will ascend to the heavenly garden. Adam and Eve in the Bible never do repent.