Thursday, September 3, 2009

I Can't Say I Really Blame Eve...

Most of you know, or are at least familiar with the Biblical story of creation. You know, God creates the heavens and the earth, the animals, and a guy named Adam. Then He decides that Adam is probably lonely and could use a companion, so He speaks Eve into existence as well.

Here at Liberty, this account of creation has been referenced in the first few sessions of almost all of the classes that I have this semester (could have something to do with half of them being Bible-related requirements...).

Most of you are also aware of what happens next in the story. God tells Adam and Eve to take care of the garden, which they happily do because it's beautiful and everything is perfect and dandy, but the one thing that they cannot do is eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or they will surely die. At that point, nothing died yet, so I'm sure that sounded even bigger and scarier than it does to us now. So anyway, they go along on their merry way, and take care of the garden and of the animals, until one day, Satan, in snake-form, comes to Eve. Here's where the trouble begins. The serpent is "crafty" and deceitful, citing all of the reasons why God surely will not kill them, and going on about how He's just trying to keep Adam and Eve from knowing the truth. Sneaky little devil...

And Eve falls for it! She reaches up and takes one of those forbidden fruits and bites right into it! I think it's pretty often that Eve gets the brunt of this whole situation. Yeah, she did what God told her not to, and yes, obviously that's bad. But many people forget to mention the part where Adam "was with her" in the garden, and he ate of the fruit as well. He was with her. He could have easily stopped her, or set some ground rules like, "let's just not go near that tree, since we can't eat from it anyway." Both Adam and Eve were at fault, not just her. And that sneaky little serpent was making some pretty good points about how she "surely wanted to know the truth!" Didn't she?

I'm not saying that the choice she made was right. In fact, it was the beginning of all the wrong. But I wouldn't have done a thing any differently.

4 comments:

Simply Valorie said...

Wow, you have no idea how much I agree with this! Ever since I read that story for myself I was like 'hold on, now, Adam could have stopped her.' We obviously live in a male dominated society when the man in the Bible gets no blame for what goes wrong, haha.

la aventurista said...

hahaha yeah! I know what you mean. I mean, obviously she had a choice and she chose the wrong thing, but she's definitely not the only one who chose the wrong thing. Important to remember...

Nicole said...

How it really happened:

ADAM: It would be nice to have all that knowledge. Wouldn't it be nice to have all that knowledge? I'd like to have all that knowledge.

EVE (to whom God already gave the knowledge without telling Adam): Yes, that would be nice. Maybe then we could have an actual conversation.

ADAM: What?

EVE: Nothing. So eat the apple already. Or are you going to stand there and talk about it all day?

ADAM: I can't reach it. I hurt my arm while I was picking grapes, and it's still really sore. Could you pick it for me?

EVE (rolls her eyes): Are you kidding me? I already wash your fig leaf for you, and now I have to pick your food, too?

ADAM: Just this once, I swear. I'll rub your feet for you.

EVE: Fine, here. But I get the first bite. (takes a bite)

ADAM (devours the rest): This is amazing! All this knowledge!

EVE: I don't feel any different...

la aventurista said...

hahahahahaha I got a really good laugh out of that :)