ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at biblical concerns, rising from traditional readings of a “fall” into the early chapters of Genesis. An exegetical exercise can try to dismantle a reading that is commonly held, or it can try to establish the positive meaning of text. This chapter only attempts the former, while leaving a few hints toward the latter aim. The author traces the theme of the curse from Genesis 3–8 for the sake of dismantling popular biblical readings that have more to do with cultural habits than with the text itself. In particular, Sollereder argues against the reading that finds in the curse language of Genesis 3:17–19 a justification for the theology of a cosmic fall – a universal curse on the natural order that has corrupted God’s good world allowing the presence of death, suffering, competition, and violence amongst animals.
