Abstract
The doctrine of the Fall is interpreted in many different ways in the Christian world. These interpretations are categorized in this article by the time scale in which natural and moral evil are believed to have come into the world. They are linked to different ideas of the creation of the world. Those interpretations that involve substantive changes in the physical world are difficult to reconcile with observational data. Those that involve no physical changes challenge our notions of the causal relationship between moral and natural evil. Though no interpretation is entirely satisfactory, each teaches some aspect of the truth.