The shared foundation

All three traditions preserve a first-human story involving divine creation, privileged relationship, a command, transgression and a changed human condition.

That shared foundation is real.

So are the divergences.

Judaism: the Torah before later Christian doctrine

The Eden narrative belongs to the Torah. Adam and Eve disobey, experience consequences and leave the Garden.

But Judaism does not simply proceed into later Christian doctrines of original sin, inherited guilt or Christ as the New Adam.

Jewish interpretation develops its own discussions of mortality, moral inclination, repentance, responsibility, Gan Eden and later mystical symbolism.

This is why Judaism should never be summarized as “Christianity up until Jesus.”

Christianity: Adam reread through Christ

Christianity reads Genesis through the New Testament, especially Paul's Adam-Christ comparisons.

Adam becomes more than the first transgressor. He becomes a representative of humanity under sin and death. Christ becomes the New or Last Adam associated with obedience, righteousness, resurrection and life.

From this develop Christian doctrines of the Fall and original sin.

But Christianity then divides internally over exactly what later humans inherit and how grace restores them.

Islam: Adam sins, repents and is forgiven

The Qur'an tells Adam's story across several passages rather than simply reproducing Genesis 2–3.

Satan/Iblis is directly the adversary. The prohibited tree is not called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and his spouse transgress. Their nakedness becomes apparent. Adam repents, God accepts his repentance, and divine guidance accompanies humanity's earthly life.

Qur'an 2:30–39 · Qur'an 20:115–123

Who is the tempter?

Genesis: the serpent.

Mainstream Christianity: the serpent is identified with Satan through the wider Christian canon.

Islam: Satan/Iblis is directly identified.

Judaism: later interpretations develop in multiple directions and do not depend on Revelation's identification.

Is Eve uniquely to blame?

No responsible comparison should repeat a cultural caricature in which one woman single-handedly destroys humanity.

Genesis says the woman eats and gives to the man, who eats. Later biblical texts discuss Adam and Eve differently in different contexts, but both participate in the transgression.

The Qur'an likewise describes both humans participating; its Adam theology does not require Eve to become the unique source of human corruption.

Does Adam repent?

Genesis: no explicit repentance scene is narrated.

Later Jewish and Christian traditions: repentance stories and interpretations develop.

Qur'an: Adam's repentance and divine acceptance are explicit.

This difference becomes one reason Islamic theology does not build the Christian doctrine of inherited original guilt.

What does humanity inherit?

This is the largest divide.

Judaism recognizes the consequences of Adam's story without adopting the specifically Christian doctrine of original sin.

Christianity broadly teaches that Adam's Fall affects later humanity, but Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Lutheran and Wesleyan explanations differ.

Islam rejects inherited Adamic guilt and emphasizes each person's accountability before God.

The shared story does not produce one shared theology

A Christian may hear “Adam” and immediately think Fall and New Adam.

A Muslim may emphasize temptation, repentance, forgiveness and guidance.

A Jewish reader may approach Adam through Torah, rabbinic responsibility and repentance without requiring Christian inherited-guilt doctrine.

To compare them fairly, we have to let each tradition speak in its own theological grammar.