Remember the story of creation you learned in Bible School. God created light and darkness, earth and sky, water and land, the sun and the moon, the birds and the beasts. Along with them came man.
Adam, the man, got lonely, so out of Adam God took a rib and formed Eve, the first woman. As they lived in the Garden of Eden, they were told not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge as God warned them; however, they were both tempted by the serpent to do so, and both sinned. Remembering the story from childhood and even through adolescence, I always thought it was just an illustration of the story of creation; a simple tale to explain the forming of the world and man. However, upon careful examination of the story, it becomes a complex weaving of the interpretation of different authors and their view of weaknesses and desires as applied to men and women.
Genesis states that the serpent tempted Eve with the fruit first, even though Adam accompanied her at the time. In conventional society, the male has always been seen as the dominant one. However, the fact that Eve was approached instead of Adam contradicts what would normally be expected. The female has traditionally been seen as the more desiring, cunning, sexual being. Her want for power is perhaps what made her more vulnerable to the serpent’s talk of being more like God.
Adam’s weakness was one of pure love and devotion to his wife; once she offered the forbidden fruit to Adam, he could not resist, for his desire to please Eve far exceeded God’s warning. The punishments bestowed upon the two by God were surely appropriate; because Eve had been the first to taste of the fruit, it would cause her pain through childbirth. And because Eve had tempted Adam in turn, she would be forced to serve under her husband. Adam’s sentence was to be his painful toil over the land he so loved. Ultimately, man was now condemned to die.
Looking back at the history of the authors who completed this chapter of the Bible, it is easy to see why certain passages don’t fit together. For example, the first chapter of Genesis states that man and woman were created together, both equal. However, the second chapter states that “no helper was found suitable” for Adam, which led to Eve’s creation. The contradiction in statements leaves much to be discussed about the Bible’s truth, and which is correct in the history of God’s creation.
