Adam

Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: Did Adam and Eve Know About the Devil?”

Q: Did Adam and Eve know of the existence of Satan before the Fall? – E.T.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: While the Catholic Church has always held that the devil is real, that doesn’t mean that Adam and Eve knew of his existence explicitly.

The biblical text, in fact, seems to indicated that Adam and Eve didn’t understand who they were dealing with when they had their fateful encounter in the Garden of Eden. Two reasons come to mind.

First, neither Adam nor Eve mention the devil. Eve only refers to the “serpent” or “snake” (Genesis 3:13), not “Satan” or “the devil.”

Second, the text itself never identifies the talking snake with Satan or any other demonic being. (Talking animals were a stock literary device in ancient writings.) The ancient Israelites who compiled the Book of Genesis likely didn’t have a notion of Satan as we understand the term today. The serpent could have simply symbolized an evil inclination that tempted humans.

The Book of Job mentions “the satan,” meaning an adversary or a prosecutor, but one who is an agent of God.

Christianity had a clearer idea of the devil – thanks to Matthew 4:1-11 and 12:22-30; Mark 1:34; Luke 10:18 and 22:31; and John 8:44, and other texts — and we tend to read that understanding back into the Old Testament texts.

Old Testament material, like all of the Bible, was transmitted orally before it was written down. Since the Genesis account doesn’t mention Satan, it’s reasonable to assume that the first humans who passed on the story of the Fall didn’t have a clear understanding of the devil.

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Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: Weren’t Adam and Eve the Result of Alchemy, Not Creation?”

Q: So I was just wondering if God the Father created everything from nothing, how it is that he created Adam from dust and Eve from Adam’s rib? I’m sorry, that’s not creation, that’s alchemy. Also, Christ said call no one on earth “father.” Pretty sure he wasn’t joking around about that. – M.S.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: Even if God formed Adam and Eve with the use of pre-existing material (dust or a rib), God is still the ultimate creator of that dust and rib. In any case humans are comprised of body and souls, and their souls have to be created “in the moment,” so to speak. So in a real sense a person (a unity of body and soul) isn’t created until “in the moment” — by God, of course.

As for Jesus’ comment about not calling people father, his intention was to drive home the idea that God the Father is a Father in a singular way for each of us. God is Father in a far more perfect way than anyone on earth could be.

Jesus certainly didn’t mean that we should ban the use of the title altogether. If we never called anyone on earth father, the very title, when applied to God, would have no meaning for us.

Besides, Scripture itself often applies the title “father” to humans. Just look at the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel:

— “He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children” (verse 17).

— “The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father” (v. 32).

— “… according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever” (v. 55).

— “When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father” (v. 59).

— “So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called” (v. 62).

— “Then Zechariah his father, filled with the holy Spirit, prophesied …” (v. 67).

— “… to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father” (vv. 72-73).

All of these verses, of course, are inspired text, with God as its primary author.

Besides, God commands that we show respect to our parents. What would we call the man who helped bring us into the world? “This guy who’s married to my mom”? That would hardly be a way to honor the Fourth Commandment.

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Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: Why Did God Allow the Fall of Adam?”

Q: Before the fall of Adam, Scripture says there was no death. Did that mean that humans were to remain on Earth and not ascend to heaven? This all goes back to the question some people ask, “Why did God allow all of this?” Yes, we have free will, but why would the “tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” even be placed in the garden in the first place? According to my research through Catholic sources only, one answer is to test us through our free will, but another answer posed the thought that God already knew what would happen even though it was our free will. This makes sense to me because a logical human being would have a backup plan just in case Adam did eat from the tree. God is infinitely greater than us. So I’m sure God was prepared for either result or even already knew it. Perhaps the temptation was allowed not only to test us, but to allow the human spirit to enter heaven where there is absolutely no evil? I understand that Eden was a paradise and God walked with man, but the fallen angels were still cast out of heaven, and temptation, in this case through the serpent, was clearly in the garden; therefore, man would have never been truly “safe” from the fallen angels or completely one with God in heaven. There might not be definite answers you can offer, but theories and philosophies are more than welcome. – F.M.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: It is good to see that you are thinking and asking these deep questions. That is part of the purpose of Scripture: to draw us deeper into the mystery of God and of salvation history.

Let me say upfront that I won’t have definitive answers for all your questions. Some of these matters are mysterious, which is why we never quite figure out everything. Nevertheless, there are some observations that might help you.

First, let’s say that the temptation – the serpent, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – was a test that allowed man to affirm his love and obedience to God. Man failed the test, but that doesn’t mean he lost forever the chance to be united with God in heaven.

As to your questions: First, people would not have remained on earth for all eternity. Our real home is in heaven, so before original sin came along the plan was probably that we would go from this world to the next world fairly smoothly.

As for free will and why God allowed the fall to happen, this is certainly one of the most perplexing questions. God knows all things from eternity. So, yes, he knew man would misuse his free will and sin.

But God’s foreknowledge of man’s fall doesn’t mean God caused the sin. Moreover, God can bring good out of bad, and in this case man’s fall meant that a redeemer would be needed.

That redeemer was Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity who took on human nature and suffered and died for us. God became one of us, in other words.

That is why in the Easter Vigil Mass, at the Exsultet, we hear that line about “O felix culpa” (O happy fault). The fault of man (sin) brought us so great a redeemer (hence the cause for joy). This is a very profound insight, the kind we could meditate on for a lifetime. We could say that the sending of a Redeemer was God’s backup plan.

As for the trees in Eden: the tree of life could be seen as a symbol of immortality (that is, the absence of death). After the fall, man is barred from the tree of life. This reflects the fact that man will now face death.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil can be seen as a symbol of the test that God put man to. Eating the produce of this tree is in itself an act of disobedience — which is why man has knowledge of good and evil after disobeying God and partaking of the forbidden fruit.

Maybe your deeper question is why God put man to the test in the first place.

Testing is the way we can grow. Every time we resist a temptation, we grow stronger. To leave someone untested is to leave him a baby all his life. God didn’t want man to remain a baby, but to be a responsible adult who would freely choose to love and obey his Creator.

Man was safe from the influence of the fallen angels to the extent that he obeyed God. Being “safe” isn’t the point of life, by the way.

Imagine a child whose parents never let him out of the house, never let him play with neighborhood kids, so that he would be “safe.” Would that be a happy child? Would that be a healthy child? Maybe not. It might be a child who never learns, never grows, never knows how to deal with real-world problems.

Perhaps you still have questions. That’s good, because these aren’t meant to be exhaustive answers. These are the kinds of questions you can pray about for years. If such praying and questioning brings you closer to God, then that is good.

For more reading, you might want to take a look at Frank Sheed’s Theology and Sanity as a possible next step.

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Today’s secular world throws curve balls at us all the time. AskACatholicPriest is a Q&A feature that anyone can use. Just type in your question or send an email to [email protected] and you will get a personal response back from one of our priests at RCSpirituality. You can ask about anything – liturgy, prayer, moral questions, current events… Our goal is simply to provide a trustworthy forum for dependable Catholic guidance and information. So go ahead and ask your question…

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Alex Kucera

Atlanta

Alex Kucera has lived in Atlanta, GA, for the last 46 years. He is one of 9 children, married to his wife Karmen, and has 3 girls, one grandson, and a granddaughter on the way. Alex joined Regnum Christi in 2007. Out of the gate, he joined the Helping Hands Medical Missions apostolate and is still participating today with the Ghana Friendship Mission.

In 2009, Alex was asked to be the Atlanta RC Renewal Coordinator for the Atlanta Locality to help the RC members with the RC renewal process. Alex became a Group Leader in 2012 for four of the Atlanta Men’s Section Teams and continues today. Running in parallel, in 2013, Alex became a Team Leader and shepherded a large team of good men.

Alex was honored to be the Atlanta Mission Coordinator between 2010 to 2022 (12 years), coordinating 5-8 Holy Week Mission teams across Georgia. He also created and coordinated missions at a parish in Athens, GA, for 9 years. Alex continues to coordinate Holy Week Missions, Advent Missions, and Monthly missions at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Cumming, GA.

From 2016 to 2022, Alex also served as the Men’s Section Assistant in Atlanta. He loved working with the Men’s Section Director, the Legionaries, Consecrated, and Women’s Section leadership teams.

Alex is exceptionally grateful to the Legionaries, Consecrated, and many RC members who he’s journeyed shoulder to shoulder, growing his relationship with Christ and others along the way. He knows that there is only one way, that’s Christ’s Way, with others!