The Temptation and the Fall

3 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” ^(A)

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”^(B)

⁴ “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman.^{(C) 5} “In fact, God knows that when^[a] you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.^{(D) 7} Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Sin’s Consequences

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,^[b] and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.^{(E) 9} So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ And he said, “I heard you^[c] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹ Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man replied,^(F) “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

¹³ So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”^(G)

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent:

¹⁶ He said to the woman:

¹⁷ And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve^[g] because she was the mother of all the living. ²¹ The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.

²² The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.”^{(O) 23} So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.^(P)

Death through Adam and Life through Christ

¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man,^(A) and death through sin,^(B) in this way death spread to all people,^(C) because all sinned.^{[a] 13} In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.^{(D) 14} Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression.^(E) He is a type of the Coming One.^(F)

¹⁵ But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man^(G) Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. ¹⁶ And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment,^(H) resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification.^{[b] 17} If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life^(I) through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life^(J) for everyone. ¹⁹ For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,^(K) so also through the one man’s obedience^(L) the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ The law came along to multiply the trespass.^(M) But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more^{(N) 21} so that, just as sin reigned in death,^(O) so also grace will reign^(P) through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁴⁵ So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being;^[a](A) the last Adam^(B) became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.

⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, a man of dust;^(C) the second man is^[b] from heaven. ⁴⁸ Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.^{(D) 49} And just as we have borne the image^(E) of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.^(F)

¹⁴ In him we have redemption,^[a] the forgiveness of sins.

The Centrality of Christ

²¹ Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. ²² But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death,^(N) to present you holy, faultless,^(O) and blameless before him^(P)— ²³ if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith^(Q) and are not shifted away from the hope^(R) of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation^(S) under heaven,^(T) and I, Paul,^(U) have become a servant of it.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,”^(A) says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”