οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν (Luke 19:40)
Consider the snake in the picture above. It slithers around on its belly in search of warmth, shelter and food. In perhaps one of the most debated passages in the Bible, God curses the serpent and sentences him to crawl on his belly. The question is, was this a physical change in the locomotion of the snake or was it a curse against the evil power that embodied the snake in the account of the Fall and Curse in Genesis 3? Most global-extent Young Earth Creationists (YECs) believe the former and say that this is just one of the ways the natural world in which we live in is cursed. Most local-extent Old Earth Creationists (OECs) believe the latter and say that this has nothing to do with the physical body of a snake.
The interpretation that one adopts has a profound effect on how they view the present natural world and how confident they feel that the geologic evidence can be trusted. Most YECs say that because man is fallen and the earth is cursed, we really cannot deduce what happened throughout its history. Because man is fallen he will tend to think naturally instead of biblically when it comes to origins. Since nature is cursed, things like radioactive decay cannot accurately be measured, because the original Creation was not subject to decay until the Curse. On the other hand, OECs say that nature was not directly cursed and therefore it can give reliable clues as to its history. They insist nature worked the same way before the Fall as it does today. So, who is right? The Bible tells us.
The Fall/Curse:
The account of the Fall and Curse is found in Genesis chapter 3. I offer a much more detailed exegetical commentary on Genesis 3 (PDF), but I will highlight it below. In this section we will discuss the following…
In this account, we find a dialogue between Eve and the serpent. This serpent is no ordinary snake. We are told later that it is Satan himself who embodied the snake (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). Satan entices Eve to eat of a tree that God directly warned them not to upon punishment of death (Gen. 2:17). Adam also ate, and the couple tried to hide from God. After blame is tossed around, God sends a series of curses toward the serpent, Eve and finally Adam.
The curse against the serpent was that he would crawl on his belly and eat dust the rest of his days. Many have said this is one proof that the physical world was cursed, but these are expressions of shame and defeat (see Mic. 7:17). We all know that snakes do not literally go around and eat dust, and from their first appearance in the fossil record in the Cretaceous period, they have always slithered on their bellies, never walking upright.
Left: Snake fossil from Italy from the Eocene Epoch. This fossil is approximately 50 million years old, which is significantly older than the creation of Adam and Eve. This snake obviously crawled on its belly, which means the curse against the serpent in Genesis 3 is not literal, and is not directed towards the physical body of the snake (image credit: "© Raimond Spekking / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 & GFDL")
Perhaps the most significant part of the curse against the serpent is his final fatal defeat. At the hands of one of Eve’s male descendents, the serpent would suffer a fatal bruise to the head. This can biblically and logically be deduced to be Jesus Christ who will ultimately defeat Satan in the future, casting him forever into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:7-10). So here we have a protoevangelium (or, first telling of the Gospel), where shortly after His prized creatures sin and fall out of perfect fellowship with Him, God offers Adam and Eve a savior and redeemer. From the text we infer then, that the curse against the serpent is not directed towards the snake, but the evil one who embodies the snake, namely Satan.
To the woman God says I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing, and in pain you will bring forth children. Many have also used this as proof the physical world was cursed. We all know that women today face great physical pain in delivering their children. The problem is that the writer is here not referring to the physical pain of childbearing, but the emotional sorrow involved. The LXX term is lupe which is not used to describe physical pain. The Hebrew term etsev is also used to depict sorrow (see Prov. 10:22). Jesus Himself in John 16:20-22 uses lupe to compare the sorrow His disciples would face after He leaves with the sorrow a woman experiences when it is time to deliver. It seems clear from the Bible then that this is not speaking of physical pain, which certainly exists, but spiritual pain. Also, there is no mention in the Bible as to what change Eve would have had to undergo physically to accommodate such a new physical pain. Eve was also cursed with the “desire” for her husband. In context this is speaking of the desire to be the head of the household; to rule her husband. Again this does not speak of the physical, but the emotional.
Finally, Adam receives his curse. It says in Gen. 3:17 that God cursed the ground on the account of Adam. This is the number one piece of evidence that YECs point to to say that the earth is cursed. Adam was sentenced to till a cursed earth that would produce many thorns and thistles. Not enough attention is given to what the text actually says, though. It does not say that thorns and thistles are a new creation. In fact, the Bible says that God is resting from His creative works. Adam was kicked out of the garden (which was not cursed and presumably did not have thorns and thistles) into the land from which he came (v. 23). We know from chapter 2 that this land was not properly irrigated. It had seasonal rains and vegetation that would come and go (2:5-6). This land would be very difficult for Adam to cultivate. He would have to do it with much pain (itstsavon LXX: lupe - again the word connotes sorrow rather than physical pain).
Right: Example of a thistle. The Bible is clear that thorns and thistles would be a hindrance to cultivating the land in which Adam was sent, but it does not say that they were created as a result of the Curse (image credit: Rob Bendall).
Perhaps the only physical curse that is mentioned here is the fact of physical death. Through Adam’s sin, death entered the world and was passed down to all men (Rom. 5:12; 1Cor. 15:21-22).
To summarize the extent of the Curse in Genesis 3…
So we see, then that there is no mention whatsoever that the physical world was cursed. There is also no mention that there was a change in the way the natural world functioned. These ideas have crept in from another passage.
Does Romans 8:18-25 Say that the Natural World is Cursed?
This is the most referenced passage in the Bible with the idea that the natural world is cursed. A more detailed exegetical commentary on Romans 8:18-25 is available; below are highlights. Many Young-Earth Creationists say the so-called natural evils such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, etc... are the result of the Curse as it is presented here in Romans. Some even say this passage suggests that the Curse ushered in the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. As a result, they claim, the geologic evidence is tainted and we cannot use it accurately to determine earth history. There is no doubt that Paul here portrays a sad state for the Creation in that it was subjected to futility against its own will. But does this passage actually refer back to the Fall and Curse in Genesis 3? And if so, in what way?
Picture from the March 1982 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, USA. Just two years earlier, this stratovolcano blew its northern side off in an violent explosion that killed 57 people. Some say there were no volcanoes in the pre-Fall world, and that they are a product of the Curse in Genesis 3 (and here in Romans 8). The implications for this interpretation are profound. It requires a world that did not operate with plate tectonics when it was originally created. Simply put, a world without plate tectonics is not a perfect world, it is a dead world (e.g. Mars and the moon). Plate tectonics is the process that God ordained to sustain this world and deliver His provisions of natural resources. Volcanoes and earthquakes are necessary byproducts of His handiwork, apparently NOT products of a Curse (image credit: USGS).
Paul says the Creation (Gr. Ktisis) is anxiously awaiting the time when the sons of God are revealed with Him in glory (Rom. 8:18-19). This is because three things have happened to the Creation. First, the ktisis was subjected to futility (v. 20). Second, it is in bondage to corruption (v. 21). Finally, it is groaning in the pains of childbirth (v. 22). It is these three reasons given by Paul that have been the root of fierce debate over the fallen state of Creation.
First we see that the Creation was subjected to futility (mataiotes) against its will. In all of its uses in the NT and the LXX, matiaotes speaks of the futility of man in his fallen state. Solomon uses the word 39 times in Ecclesiastes alone to depict all of the vane things man is chasing rather than just being happy with all that God has given him. It is never used as a modifier for any natural object. It is always used to speak of the futility of man.
Next we see that Creation suffers in bondage to corruption (phthora). In Genesis chapter 6 we read that God sent a flood to destroy (kataphtheiro) the earth because the earth was filled with corruption (the verb phtheiro). All these words are of the same root and mean one thing. Man in his fallen state is corrupt. The physical earth cannot be corrupt. It suffers the bondage of corruption because it must tolerate a corrupt man. We were designed to take dominion of God’s Creation (Gen. 1:26-28), and we cannot do that in our fallen nature. Therefore the Creation anxiously awaits the time when we will no longer be in bondage to corruption because then it will also be set free.
Likewise when Paul says the Creation groans together in the pains of childbirth, he does not use the term for pain in Genesis 3 (lupe), he uses sustenazo. This term connotes a sighing due to being oppressed. Our beings are full of vanity and corruption from which we sigh in agony, waiting to be set free from this bondage. Paul likens this to the suffering and sighing of the ktisis.
To summarize the current state of the Creation...
These three terms are used exclusively in describing human activity and emotion in their other uses in Scripture. None of the three terms have any direct tie to the account of the Fall and Curse in Genesis 3 as many have suggested. It is only indirectly at best that a parallel can be seen with the Curse, and only when viewed as a result of fallen man being unable to fulfill his original duty of taking dominion over the Creation.
It is clear that the ktisis experiences these things only because of man, not because of a direct curse from God. Nowhere in either Genesis 3 or this passage in Romans 8 do we find any Scriptural evidence that the ktisis (the Creation) itself is cursed.
Did Adam’s Sin Bring About Death for Animals, Too?
This is the view held by most global-extent YECs. They say there was no death, including animals, before Adam sinned. They find "proof" of this in two NT passages; Romans 5:12 and 1Corinthians 15:21-22. They suggest that to have millions of years of animal death before the Fall is to undermine the authority of Scripture and to water down the atoning death of Christ on the cross. Let’s explore those passages and see if that point is validated by Scripture.
In reading that death entered the world through sin in Romans 5:12, many YECs have taken this to mean that there was no death, period, before Adam’s sin. This might be a reasonable interpretation if the verse would not go on to say that death spread to all men. Paul seemingly goes out of his way to say that death affected the human race (anthropos). Anthropos is never used to mean anything other than man. In fact, Jesus says that anthropos is distinct from and more important than the animals (Matt. 12:12). It is clear that anthropos cannot include animals, and the fact that Paul specifically mentions death spreading to all men, may mean that he wished to exclude animal death from the conversation. Perhaps this was because animal death is either unimportant to the story or because it had been in the world for a long time before human death. I believe it is dangerous to read into the Bible what it does not say. Specifically where it might cause contradictions with other portions of Scripture or cause the adoption of heretical doctrine. If that is not clear here in Romans 5, it is so in the parallel passage in 1Cor. 15:21-22. There, Paul says that in Adam all die, and in Christ all are made alive. If that includes animal death, then Paul is saying that Christ died so that animals may have eternal life! This notion is not supported anywhere in Scripture.
So, if these passages are dealing with human death, what can we make of animal death? Is it a product of the Curse?
Lion and cub next to their prey in South Africa. Is the carnivorous behavior of the lions and the death of this buffalo the result of sin coming into the world? Most YECs would say yes, but a careful look at Scripture would say no. Photo by Luca Galuzzi, used with permission - www.galuzzi.it.
Is the scene in the picture above one of God's design in His Creation, or is it the product of sin and the Curse of Genesis 3? We can carefully study the Scripture and see the answer. Most YECs will point out that all creatures had vegetarian diets in the beginning, before the Fall. This is based on Genesis 1:29-30 where God gives the trees and plants with seed as food. Then in Genesis 9:3, they say, God opens it up for meat to be included in the diet. There are a few problems here, though. First, the verses in Genesis 1 do not say that these plants are the ONLY food that can be eaten. Second, the verse in Genesis 9 mentions only the remes (creeping thing, rodent) is now given for food. This does NOT include any or all animals. Even if it was an all-inclusive statement, this is long after the Curse in Genesis 3, and therefore is not a part of the Curse.
Finally, we can see the answer in Psalm 104:21 which says, "The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God." This verse clearly implies that this behavior is part of God's design in Creation as He has given these lions the buffalo for their food. Certainly God's provision could not be the same as His curse. This scene then is a part of His 'very good' Creation, which is still good today, long after the Curse (1Tim. 4:4).
I believe the YEC answer to this question is an example of careless exegesis. It is an unfortunate interpretation that forces them into a corner to say that the entire fossil record (i.e. record of animal death) formed after the Fall and Curse of Genesis 3 (i.e. in Noah's Flood). Many people are trapped in that corner and are forced to “find” geologic evidence and resort to special pleading in order to support their view. An in-depth look at the rock record and the Bible will reveal that that is simply not the case.
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