Who Told the First Lie?

Jesus Christ identified the first liar, and he showed that it was not a human. He said: “When he [Satan] speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.” (John 8:44) So the first liar was Satan the Devil. When did he start telling lies? According to the Bible, it was shortly after the beginning of the history of the human race.

The event is recorded in the Bible book of Genesis, and the lie was a matter of life or death for mankind. God indicated to the first man, Adam, that his continued life depended on obedience. He gave Adam a simple law to keep and said that if he failed to keep that law he would “positively die.” But Satan maliciously lied and said: “You positively will not die.” That was the first of the billions of lies that have been heard on this planet Earth.​—Genesis 2:17; 3:4.

Many today do not believe that account in the Bible. But Jesus, the most truthful man who ever lived, confirmed that the record in Genesis is not myth but true history. (Matthew 19:4, 5) Certainly, the results of that lie are still with us. It spelled disaster for the human race.

The First Lie​—How It Has Affected You

IN India, in 1981, a train was approaching a bridge when the engineer suddenly noticed a cow on the line. He braked violently. The train was derailed and seven crowded coaches plunged into the river below. More than 800 lives were lost. Thus a small event​—a cow on the railway line—​led to a major tragedy. Something similar happened in Eden, the garden of God.

Eden must have been a delightful place. It had trees, flowers, animals and birds in great variety. There was harmony and tranquillity. It was truly paradise. Adam and Eve must have delighted in God’s handiwork. And they had a thrilling prospect. God told them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) Additionally, they had a sublimely simple religion: to do God’s will.

Even the angels took a keen interest in this happy beginning of the human race. But one angel was different. His interest was colored by selfishness. He coveted the worship of man for himself and plotted to become the “god,” or ruler, of the world. He thus became Satan, which name means “adversary.”​—See Luke 4:5-8; 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Jehovah God told Adam not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree. This was a simple test. By meeting it, Adam and his wife could show that they really wanted to serve God. Moreover, Jehovah warned: “In the day you eat [the forbidden fruit] from it you will positively die.” (Genesis 2:17) The gift of everlasting life was not to be for disobedient rebels.

Satan saw his opportunity here. Through a snake he tempted Eve to take the forbidden fruit, saying: “You positively will not die.” Then he said regarding that tree: “For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” (Genesis 3:4, 5) What a dazzling offer​—to be like God! But Satan lied. Eve, however, believed what he said and disobediently ate of the forbidden fruit. Later, she offered it to Adam, who joined her in sinning. What was the result?

That crucial act “derailed” the whole human race and led to tragedy. The first couple immediately lost paradise. In time, they also lost their lives and returned to the dust from which they had been formed. (Genesis 3:19) Sadly, all their children​—the human race—​were thus born outside paradise, and into sin and death.​—Romans 5:12.

Seemingly, Satan had won. He was now a “god,” and the human race was following him instead of the Creator. But he had not really won. He had merely struck the opening blow in a conflict that continues even today. Jehovah immediately moved to counteract the results of Satan’s lie. He said to Satan: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.”​—Genesis 3:15.

In this, the first prophecy in the Bible, final defeat is foretold for Satan, coming by means of a certain “seed.” Who is that seed? That remained a secret for a long time.

The God of This World

With few exceptions, the descendants of Adam and Eve chose to imitate their parents and disobey God. They preferred the independence offered by Satan. Eventually, opposition to God came to be concentrated in a region known as Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

The human leader of that opposition was a man named Nimrod. He is identified in the Bible as the first king and empire builder. All his activities were in opposition to God; hence, the Bible says: “He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” The beginning of his empire was Babel, later centered in the city of Babylon.​—Genesis 10:9, 10.

So it was from Babel that political oppression and cruelty spread. Novel religious theories were also promoted there. The first lie​—that sinful Eve would not really die—​had been exposed, since Eve did die. Now an embellishment of that lie was taught. An immortal part of man was said to survive death and live on in an unseen world. This doctrine led to a belief in hellfire, spiritism, ancestor worship and a host of other untrue teachings.

The religious theories originating in ancient Babel, or Babylon, spread all around the world. One authority, noting the widespread similarities between most of the world’s religions, said that they “must have all derived their religious ideas from a common source.” (The Worship of the Dead, by Colonel J. Garnier) That source was ancient Babylon. This worldwide religious system derived from Babylon is referred to in the Bible as “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.”​—Revelation 17:5.

Hence, Satan’s first lie led to widespread political oppression and false religion.