Of course, the Church Fathers did not believe in the same Watchtower's explanation of the meaning of Jesus sacrifice. However, it seems that the majority in the churches of the first centuries did believe in the account of Genesis chapter 3 as historical. Of course, some of the Alexandrian School gave to it an allegorical interpretation, however, Augustine pointed out that the whole account was a historical fact:
"...some allegorize all that concerns Paradise
itself, where the first humans, the parents of the human race, are, according
to the truth of holy Scripture, recorded to have been; and they understand all
its trees and fruit-bearing plants as virtues and habits of life, …as if they
had no existence in the external world, but were only so spoken of or related
for the sake of spiritual meanings. As if there could not be a real terrestrial
Paradise! ...No one, then, denies that Paradise may signify the life of the
blessed; its four rivers, the four virtues, prudence, fortitude, temperance,
and justice; its trees, all useful knowledge; its fruits, the customs of the
godly; its tree of life, wisdom herself, the mother of all good; and the tree
of the knowledge of good …and evil, the experience of a broken commandment.. .These and similar
allegorical interpretations may be suitably put upon Paradise without giving
offence to any one, provided we believe the truth of the story as a faithful record of historical fact."(Augustine, City of God, Book XIII.XXI )
So, the early church understood this myth as it were a fact.
