Preface. Not yet written. Draw parallels with Prometheus and Tower of Babel, god fearing man becoming like god, and in the Prometheus case, a golden age. Also Pandora, woman source of all evil. Story wrestles with the question, where does evil come from, how do we know right from wrong, why is suffering part of living? My version inspired by Milton's telling in Paradise Lost. Points to discuss with child: was the punishment too harsh? did God foresee the act of disobedience? if he did, does that excuse it? why didn't God want them to know good and evil? if Eve had never eaten the apple, would living for ever in the Garden of Eden have become boring? Maybe something about original sin. God’s sentence on Eve: “you will bear children in pain” refers to the painfulness of childbirth, not the fact of childbirth. We infer from the Genesis account that, despite the prospect of never dying, procreation was always part of God's plan.
When God had finished making the world and Adam the first man, he rested. Then he thought, I've made so many animals, but none have names. So he brought all the animals to Adam to name. Whatsoever name Adam called a particular animal, that would be its name always.
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| Adam naming the animals. A 16th century fresco at Meteora monastery in Greece. |
Adam enjoyed naming the animals, but a few days passed, and he felt lonely. I need someone to talk to, he thought. How so? asked God, when Adam told him this, you can talk to the parrots. It’s not the same said Adam. They seem to answer, but they don’t understand what I say to them, they only pretend.
Leave it to me, said God, I'll see what I can do.
So God made Eve to be a companion for Adam.
Adam loved Eve and Eve loved Adam, and God gave them a garden to live in, called the Garden of Eden. The Garden had orchards with every sort of fruit tree, vegetable patches, and copses of nut trees. Apples grew there, bananas and figs, cauliflower, tomatoes and peas, walnuts and peanuts. In fact, all the fruit, vegetables and nuts that Adam and Eve could wish for. And the best part was, the vegetables grew without digging, and no weeds came. They didn't need to dig, and they didn't have to weed.
Adam and Eve ate no meat. In fact no animals ate meat, the lion lay down with the lamb. A high wall surrounded the Garden, which was also known as Paradise, meaning walled garden.
Now you may think that so far this isn't much of a story and not much seems to have happened: and that's because I haven't really begun yet. Before I do, there's one more thing I need to tell you, about a very special tree growing in the middle of the Garden of Eden, and the special rule that God made about it. There was only one rule in Paradise, and it was about this tree. The tree’s name was the Tree of Knowledge, and here was the rule: Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat its fruit. God was quite definite on this point. Anything else was okay, but not that.
And so our story begins. For it chanced one afternoon that while Adam was asleep, Eve went wandering. She liked the idea of exploring the Garden without Adam at her side, because much as she loved him, she liked sometimes to do her own thing in her own way. She wandered through open parkland where wild animals roamed, and by a mighty river that watered the Garden. There were tinkling streams too, and secluded ponds.
On the afternoon I am telling you of, Eve wandered into the middle of the Garden to her favourite place, a grove with two trees perpetually covered in blossom. And yet despite the blossom, the trees also bore fruit: two things you'll never see together nowadays. One of them was the Tree of Knowledge, the special tree that I've already told you about. Eve loved to contemplate the Tree of Knowledge, especially when she was alone.
But today Eve was not alone, for lo and behold, under the Tree of Knowledge someone was sitting. It was the Serpent. And he was munching an apple. By the way, at this time the Serpent had legs. He had a wise look about him and he started to speak. He was in fact the Devil, but Eve had no reason to suspect this. She didn't even know there was a Devil. She had noticed the Serpent’s wise look before, and wasn’t entirely surprised when she found he could speak.
And here's what the Serpent said.
Eve, he said, munching, here's a very fine apple that I've picked off this tree, shall I pick one for you?
The Tree of Knowledge! said Eve. Indeed not. It's forbidden! God told us it’s the one tree we must not eat from.
But it will make you wise like me said the Serpent.
No! said Eve. God is so good to us. I don’t want to!
You would know the difference between Good and Evil said the Serpent. You would know Right from Wrong. Why would God not want you to know those things? Surely you must be mistaken.
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| The painter Titian imagines Adam trying to dissuade Eve from plucking another apple. But how hard is he trying? Date : 1570 Prado Museum, Madrid |
This conversation went on for two long hours, and the sun was now low in the sky. Every time Eve said no, the Serpent thought up new reasons why it would be a good idea to eat the apple. He just about persuaded Eve that deep down God actually wanted her to eat it. She didn’t understand the Good and Evil stuff that the Serpent kept on about - yet she felt herself wanting to understand.
At length, she ate one of the forbidden apples. The Serpent gave it to Eve and she ate it. It was deliciously sharp, bitter almost.
Eve sat down under the tree. The Serpent had disappeared. She felt this was odd. She wanted to continue her talk with the Serpent; some of the things he said were beginning to make sense.
Eve felt she had done wrong. An hour beforehand she hadn't actually understood what the Serpent meant by right and wrong.
But now it began to dawn on Eve that there was a difference.
And the thing she had done was wrong. WRONG. She KNEW she had done wrong. She looked down and saw she was naked. She must have been naked all the time, but now she KNEW it. Hastily she tore down some fig leaves and used the stalks to weave the leaves into an apron. A feeling crept up on Eve which was unfamiliar to her. It was a feeling she didn’t like. The feeling was misery. She didn’t want to know she was naked, nor did she want to know that she had done wrong. But she did know. She tried to forget these things. But try as she might, she couldn't forget.
Before the apple I was happy thought Eve. Now I'm unhappy.
Happy, unhappy. Strange to tell, before the apple, Eve didn’t actually know either of these words.
She thought of Adam, and as she did so her misery grew. I must run away and never see Adam again she thought. Or maybe I should explain to Adam what I've done, and then go away.
Or maybe he will eat a forbidden apple and if we've both eaten one it won't be so bad.
Or maybe he will eat a forbidden apple and if we've both eaten one it won't be so bad.
She plucked one of the forbidden apples and went looking for Adam. She found him picking strawberries. Adam was startled at Eve’s appearance. What are the fig leaves for, he asked? I was naked said Eve, and so are you. What’s naked said Adam? Eat this and you’ll know said Eve, offering the apple.
That’s from the Tree of Knowledge, exclaimed Adam. We mustn’t eat that, throw it away, quick!
Eve stood with her arm outstretched and the forbidden apple, saying nothing. And from that nothing Adam understood what she had done.
It was the cool of the day and Adam knew God would soon be walking in the Garden. He knew too that when God found what Eve had done, something very bad would happen. He couldn't guess what, but in the pit of his stomach he felt he would never be allowed to see Eve again.
Give me the apple, he said. And he ate it. Like Eve, he first realised he had done WRONG, then he understood he was naked and understood why Eve had made the apron of leaves. Eve was already gathering fig leaves for Adam and he put on the apron she made for him. Then like Eve before him he felt miserable.
Adam and Eve heard God walking nearby. They hid behind a thicket of bushes. Where are you, God called. Come and show yourselves. And they stood before him, wearing their aprons of fig leaves, feeling foolish and miserable.
Why are you wearing those fig leaves, asked God. He knew, of course, but he asked anyway.
We were naked said Eve. And we were ashamed said Adam.
Who told you, you were naked? asked God. You have eaten the forbidden fruit!
The Serpent told me to eat it! said Eve.
Eve told me to eat it! said Adam. He wished he hadn't said that. But he said it.
God was angry. But was he disappointed? Did he know all the time that this would happen?
First God turned to the Serpent. You! he said, for this thing you have done, you will creep on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the children of Eve. They will crush your head, and you will bite their heel.
Next God turned to Eve. You! he said to Eve, for this thing you have done, you will bear children in pain. To grow crops you will toil and sweat.
Last, God turned to Adam. You! he said to Adam, for this thing you have done, thistles and nettles will grow in the fields. To eat your bread, you will labour all the days of your life. Nothing will grow unless you cultivate the soil with the sweat of your brow.
To Adam and Eve he said: and after your days of toil, when you are old and worn out, both of you will die.
And you, said God to the Serpent, you too will die. All living things will die. You will die and return to the soil. For dust you are, and to dust you will return.
An angel flew down and whispered in God’s ear. Remember the Tree of Life said the angel.
Did I mention that two magical trees grew in the middle of the Garden of Eden? You already know about the Tree of Knowledge, the forbidden tree that was the cause of all the trouble. But perhaps I forgot to tell you about the other, the Tree of Life.
When God first created Adam and Eve, he was happy for them to live for ever, just so long as they were ignorant of good and evil. But now that they had eaten the forbidden fruit, and knew good and evil, God feared that they would become gods like him. This he could now allow. Which is why he handed out such severe punishments.
And why now he said: so that you shall die, you must not taste the Tree of Life. Therefore you must leave the Garden. An angel with a flaming sword will guard the entrance. You can never return.
The sun had set in the western sky and dusk was falling. The world would never be the same again. Adam and Eve held hands as they walked through the gate, past the angel with the flaming sword, out of the Garden, into a new life of toil and hardship. Some say they quarrelled after eating the forbidden fruit, each blaming the other for what had happened. But if so, now they were reconciled again. Whatever troubles came, they would face together and still love each other.
For a brief moment, God felt sorry for Adam and Eve. Before they left the Garden, he sewed them warm clothes made from the skins of beasts, to protect them in the cold harsh world they were about to enter.
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| The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Painting by Benjamin West, 1791. In this picture Eve's dress certainly isn't made of skins! |
