The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise — Très Riches Heures

The Limbourg Brothers (active c. 1385–1416) — c. 1412–1416 · Illumination on vellum · Musée Condé, Chantilly

“Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” — Genesis 3:23 (KJV)

About

From the most famous prayer book ever made — the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry (about 1412–1416) — the Limbourg brothers paint Eden as a golden garden wall: the serpent, a woman-bodied tempter, offers the fruit; in one scene Adam and Eve eat, are ashamed, and are driven out by the angel.

The Meaning

Four moments of Genesis 3 compressed into a single walled garden: the whole tragedy in one glance — innocence, temptation, shame, exile. The painters dressed it in their own century's gold to say the Fall is not ancient history; it is the human story.

For Us Today

Take God's 'thou shalt not' as seriously as His 'thou shalt'. One act of distrust at one tree unmade the world; and one act of obedience at another tree — Christ's — remakes it (Romans 5:19).

Image: Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons — the file’s page. Tap the picture to open the full-size original there.