The story of the first sin in Genesis 3 introduces the concept of death in humanity. Because Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and disobey God, they are no longer immortal. In Genesis chapters 4 to 11, a multitude of verses are spent describing the lineages that spread from Adam and Eve, and talking about the extreme longeivity of their lives. Over time, these people’s lifespans generally tend to get shorter. In Kass’s article, he says that after nearly a millennium of ‘immortal’ human existence, death has entered the world. With the fall of humanity brought about by the first sin, concerns about death and evil enter the world.
Considering Adam’s sin leads to the sin in Noah’s narrative, Adam and Eve’s actions had direct effects on the entire course of humanity. Due to the spread of of sin through humanity’s actions in stories like the Tower of Babel and Cain killing Abel, the world had to. be cleansed. Similarly to what God said in Genesis 3, God told Noah and his sons and their wives to be fruitful and multiply in the world after the flood. Noah and the others followed God’s command to be holy, and through the generations that followed him, produced the people of the new world.
Noah’s virtue helps save humanity and the future of the animals, so that they can repopulate the cleansed earth after the flood to erase evil and to keep the sin of the past. When God makes a covenant with the people and says He will never completely wipe out man again, there still remains concern about humanity’s tendency to sin. In Genesis, there are plenty of examples of people like Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the tower of Babel disobeying God’s commands and acting in their own selfish interests . Even though the sin of Adam and Eve permanently damaged human kind’s relationship with God, there is concern that even with God’s new covenant, humans will still fall back into their selfish ways.
Lauren Gaertner's Theology Blog 
I agree, but I have a question. Do you think that God can make mistakes? It seems that God made humans in his image, but God is good and humans are flawed. Even though Noah is virtuous his offspring are still flawed which brings me to this question.
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I agree with the comment about Genesis 3 introducing the concept of death in humanity. It hadn’t occurred to me in a long time that Adam and Eve’s consequences still affect us to this day.
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Nice Reflection! I also pose a question: If humans have this tendency to sin, which is revealed to be a major source of frustration for God, why does He allow this tendency to persist? Furthermore, why does God vow to never wipe out the Earth again even though mankind will continue to fall short of His presumed expectations and/or wishes?
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This is a very thoughtful reflection! You made a lot of great points; I especially liked the part where you acknowledged the fact that even though there was a new covenant, humanity’s tendency to sin still remained. I do have one question: if you think that the relationship between God and mankind remains permanently damaged despite the covenant and that they will fall right back into their old selfish ways, what do you think the purpose of the covenant was? Did it accomplish anything?
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I like the thoughts here, but maybe touch on how God eventually drastically reduces the time humans live for(only about 120 years compared with Adam’s over 900 years). This leads to infuriation and the need to feel special now in a world where people die. Also, how do you think death really contributed to the downfall we saw in Genesis 4-11?
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