In the Holy Scriptures, this idea is confirmed by the words of the Apostle Paul from the Epistle to the Romans that the creation did not submit to vanity voluntarily, and that just as the creature's fall into vanity, that is, to corruption as well, so its liberation is directly connected with man, that is, with his falling into the law of corruption and with his liberation from it (Romans 8:  19–23).

1.5. Human Sojourn in Paradise

According to the Book of Genesis, man is created outside of paradise and is introduced into this paradise. There are no unambiguous interpretations of its location, but since the text mentions the Euphrates River, it is conventionally placed in Mesopotamia. Man is brought to paradise in order to preserve and cultivate it. Again, there are very different interpretations here, ranging from literal ones, which say that man is placed in paradise in order to learn the greatness of God from the greatness of His creations, and up to those who see in the cultivation of paradise the cultivation of one's own soul and bringing it into a god-like state.

In paradise, a person is given certain commandments and commandments (Gen. 2:16, 17). According to one of them, Adam gives names to God's creatures, which means that Adam was able to comprehend the essence of creation, which, say, we do not have now. That is, to name a name means to comprehend what it is in front of you. We are not able to do this now.

In addition to the commandment to cultivate the garden, Adam was told that he could eat of any fruit that is in Paradise, except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). I would like to draw your attention to these prohibitions. What kind of tree is it? How can a person know good and evil through a tree?

Perhaps the key to the answer is to clarify the meaning of the word "cognition" in this context. "To know" in biblical usage is not only to learn, that is, to receive some information, but to partake of something (see Gen. 4:17). And in this case, by eating the fruit of this tree, that is, through the transgression of God's commandment, a person can really partake of this experience of evil, which does not yet exist for him. For him, evil is a transgression of God's commandment, and with the help of this tree he can transgress it and thus partake of, that is, to know, to experience for himself what evil is.

A perplexing question arises: why was such a tree needed? If it had not existed, God would not have given commandments regarding it, and everything would have been fine. But freedom also presupposes freedom of choice, that is, a person created free, called to abide in the love of God, called to be a friend of God, can also use this freedom in the opposite direction, that is, to renounce God and turn away from God. And it is precisely this tree that gives the opportunity to test and strengthen this freedom. Hence the possibility of realizing this freedom for evil. If man had no opportunity to transgress God's commandment, to hide from God somewhere, then he could not truly be called free.

This, of course, is not the only meaning.

For it becomes the teacher of the passions for those who perceive it bodily, bringing upon them oblivion of the divine. For this reason, probably, God forbade man to eat it, postponing it for a while, so that man would first – which was very justly –

25] (Scholia: "The visible creature," he says, "possesses both spiritual logoi for the mind, and a natural power for feeling. And the speculations of both are, like a tree, in the middle of the heart, figuratively understood as paradise" [48, p. 184]).

Thus, St. Maximus asserts that this commandment did not have an absolute character, but only temporary, and indicated to man the order of his growth in goodness and deification. Here I note that in the future we will practically not turn to such complex interpretations. But not because of neglect of them, but because the course is introductory, introductory.

1.6. The Fall

In the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon it is said directly: "Through the envy of the devil death entered into the world" (Wis. 2:24). On the first pages of the Book of Genesis, nothing is said about the devil, or about spirits, or about angels. For the first time we meet the Cherubim at the moment when Adam is expelled from paradise and the Cherubim with a flaming sword is appointed to guard paradise (Gen. 3:24). Nevertheless, the very first verses, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," are understood by many to mean that they are talking about the creation of both the material world and the spiritual world, and that the angels of God were witnesses to the creation of the world, and that they were created before man was created. Confirmation of this is found in the Book of Job: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know. Who has set a measure for it, if you know? Or who stretched the rope along it? On what are its foundations established, or who laid its cornerstone, in the common rejoicing of the morning stars, when all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:4-7). The appearance of evil preceded the appearance of man, namely, the fall of Lucifer and those angels who followed him. The Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel that "the devil is a murderer from time immemorial" (John 8:44), as the Fathers explain, because He sees man being led there by God, and even higher than what he had before and from which he fell away. Therefore, in the very first temptation that comes upon a person, we see the action of the devil.

Commentators on the Book of Genesis draw attention to the fact that this commandment (Gen. 2:16-17) was unusually easy. The freedom of Adam and Eve is difficult for us to imagine. "Man was created in the beginning, endowed with power over his own desires, possessing a free striving for whatever he wanted: for the Divinity, in Whose image he was created, is free" [38, Book 2, p. 12]. Neither hunger nor any need tormented him – nothing pushed Adam and Eve to eat of this tree, but only the desire not to listen to the voice of God, to act according to their own will. However, the idea of crime did not arise by itself, man follows the sly proposal of the serpent. It is not said here what kind of serpent it is, but there is no doubt that the voice that sounds here is not the voice of an animal, since the serpent is a dumb creature, but the voice of the devil. Let us note that, having departed from the will of God, a person does not do his own will, but immediately submits to the devil.