Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; “but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:1-6)
Eve and Adam’s decision to disobey God is commonly called the “original sin” as it was designated in the ancient Christian West, but the Eastern Patristic writers did not use that phrase, instead calling it the “ancestral sin.” At least in theological terms it was an act that had an effect not only on the human race, but also upon the entire cosmos. It changed every relationship in the universe – between humanity and God, humanity and the rest of creation, creation and God.
Yet Orthodox theology has never accepted the notion of ‘original sin’ in the sense that the guilt of the first parents is somehow transmitted to all of their descendants – to the entire human race. Traditional Orthodox theology has held that what is transmitted as a result of ‘the ancestral sin’ is the consequences of the sin, notably attachment to materiality, an inclination toward evil, and of course, decay and death. (Paul Ladouceur, “Evolution and Genesis 2-3: The Decline and Fall of Adam and Eve”, SVTQ Vol 57 No. 2, 2013, pp 136-137)
“The Fall” as it became known brought into human existence evil, decay, illness, and death. The Bible is basically the story of humanity dealing with the consequences of the Fall, with the caveat that God intervenes into this story many times and finally entering into the story in the incarnation in order to change the narrative and reunite humanity and all creation back to our Creator.
St Ephrem (d. 373AD) notes that a tree or perhaps three trees have played a significant role in the entire biblical narrative about God and the world. There is of course the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which the humans were warned not to eat. It sat right in the middle of the Garden of Paradise as is befitting a main character.
Who is there who can expound concerning that tree which caused those who sought it to go astray?
It is an invisible target, hidden from the eyes, which wearies those who shoot at it.
It is both the Tree of Knowledge, and of ignorance:
it is the cause of knowledge, for by it a person knows
what is the gift that was lost, and the punishment that took place.
Blessed is that Fruit (i.e. Christ) which has mingled knowledge of the Tree of Life into mortals. (SELECT POEMS, p 101)
That Tree with its forbidden fruit could enlighten, but it also was able to darken the mind and heart and soul. Even as this Tree led to Eve and Adam’s ignorance, it did give them the knowledge of what they had lost. The second tree identified in Paradise was the Tree of Life, which also became a forbidden Tree to Eve, Adam and the rest of humanity. It had the potential of giving eternal life to the humans, but through their disobedience to God, the Tree of Life also was forbidden them.
Through a tree Adam lost his home in paradise, but through the tree of the Cross the thief came there to dwell. (Holy Friday hymn of Matins)
The Tree of Life was forbidden to humans, only until the Christ came. For in His dying on the wood of the cross (the third tree), made that wood (which was both dead and an instrument of death) into the Tree of Life again, and made it accessible to all of us. Through Christ the wood of the cross became life-giving.
The wise thief, O Lord you made worthy of paradise in a single moment; By the wood of Your cross illumine me as well and save me. (Exaposteilarion of Holy Friday Matins)
Fraternized 