The First Sin and Its Punishment
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ The Lord God said to the serpent,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.’
To the woman he said,
‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.’
And to the man he said,
‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you,
“You shall not eat of it”,
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.’
The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all who live. And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
Image By Bryant Arnold
Growing up in the midst of the feminist revolution didn’t stop this story from being told to me at church and in popular society in a certain sexist manner.
The nobility of man, the servant of the Lord, who always did as he was asked without question was a theme stressed in the recounting of this tale. A noble savage indeed who would to this day, still be tilling the soil in the Garden of Eden if not for that temptress woman, that she-devil.
And woman, well she is a vixen, a creator of sin that convinces man to have at the “apple”. She must have used her feminine charms to seduce poor and noble man into committing the first sin. It was woman who was responsible for the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. She did it, she made us do it.
What an interesting telling of the tale.
And as I reflect upon this story and write this entry I am struck by how stupid, obliviously and without reason man is depicted in the story. Man cannot even think for himself. What an oaf. What a child…pointing to her and telling God like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar that “she made me do it.”
And for centuries women have been blamed for our banishment from Eden. And why? Cause they offered us the forbidden fruit? Nothing is said, at least in popular religious culture that I have experienced, about the male sin. Yes the male sin, man said yes. He agreed.
Sure women offered the forbidden fruit, a sin. But man said yes, also a sin. And because man said yes, and women offered the forbidden fruit they were expelled from paradise. Man was forced to labour and woman was to suffer pain in child-birth.
What a minute…is this story about sex? Uh, who would have thought.
In fact, some Christian church leaders felt women needed to suffer for the sin of Eve and to give them any kind of pain relief during child birth was a sin. It wasn’t until Queen Victoria had “twilight” sleep while giving birth to one of her children and declared it was wonderful did some back off althought the RC church held on for a while…in some Orthodox Jewish hospitals they do not give any kind of pain relief.
I think this is a great example of passing the buck, the man was told about the garden BEFORE woman was created so knew better.
I know!! The concept that we men are somehow innocent is preposterous!
I have always known that the man isn’t as innocent as ones want to believe in this account. Let’s think about it for a minute. A serpent spoke to Eve….maybe she was watching the serpent for a while, eating this fruit. It did not die, instead it spoke. “Wow. God said eating from that tree would make you die and yet this serpent now has a miraculous power. He is now telling me I will receive an amazing gift of knowledge and not death.” She was deceived, as she said, by the serpent.
Now according to Gen Chapt 2:19 Adam had been around long enough to name all of the animals, considering the amount of animals out there, and maybe he spent some time observing each of the animals before naming them, this task could not accomplished in just a day or two. The bible says he did this alone, before Eve was created. It is possible he saw an animal eat from the forbidden tree and nothing change about it(remember it was only humans who were commanded not to eat from the tree, doesn’t say anything about animals). He was “older” and had had a longer relationship with god. It would seem from the few chapters before God communicated on a regular basis with Adam. These are a few of the facts we can glean from the earlier chapters of Genesis which we can draw a logical conclusion Adam knew that only intelligent creatures spoke, not animals. There for he knew something was not right. Notice he doesn’t say Eve deceived him, but blame shifted instead. We do that too, when we have no good reason for an action. Adam knew full well that he was doing something wrong and he did it anyways. The consequence, as we all know, was death, not immediate, but with in a thousand years. Enough time for Adam and Eve (sorry Marty, I am getting ahead) to see the full consequences of disobeying God. Hummmmm guess the serpent was lying when he told Eve she wouldn’t die.
‘Cource Paul says in a few places that Adam was to blame but that was written way after the account in Genesis. : )
Have you ever thought the story might not be about man and women but about our journey back to God. What I mean is think of how Adam or Man could represent our Spirits that when we came to earth we fell and became mortal because we gained a body (Eve – Female). Adam or Eve could represent you and me with a spirit and and body, fallen man, in the world now east of Eden. It is interesting then how Moses was told to make the Tabernacle and the people were to come from the east and learn, going west, to grow up with the help of the Lord becoming no longer children of Isreal but aults of Isreal. Beomg able to now pass the angle cheribum and partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life or enter into the Holy of Holies that of the Presence of God.