Article April 21, 2008 Issue

THE BIBLE AND ORIGINAL INNOCENCE

BY MICHAEL HAMILTON

THERE ARE few moments more full of hope and possibility than the birth of a long-awaited child. Perhaps that's because the innocence of the child speaks to the innocence in us. This may be why the prophet Isaiah spoke of the Messiah's birth as fulfilling a deep and universal longing: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6).

You might be wondering what the birth of this child has to do with your own life. After all, while we all may be born with a modicum of innocence—or is it just inexperience?—we then grow, change, make mistakes, do wrong, and maybe hurt others, and sometimes suffer immediate or delayed guilt.

Without our even realizing it, reasoning along these lines might lead right into a false conception of our beginnings and our destiny that seeks to justify, explain, and even invite all kinds of trouble. The allegory of Adam and Eve (see Gen. 2:6—4:24) portrays this banal chain reaction: Mortal men and women are dust-born, duped, disobedient, and doomed to repeat the cycle of mortality. The doctrine of original sin—the belief that the tendency to do wrong is innate in men and women, as the result of Eve's and Adam's disobedience—is rooted in this account.