[Karma]

Interesting topic! I never really looked at Eve as having any blame.....she was deceived by the serpent. It was Adam who deliberately disobeyed God's instructions when he KNOWINGLY ate the fruit.

I found some interesting things to add:

Adam and Eve were the first humans, according to the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian religions

I find this really interesting because when these three major religions agree on something.....it is INTERESTING!

I however always found the stories of the bible to be rooted in something "historical" but not literal. I think they are stories to teach us things, and may have elements of "truth" but are vastly creative fables to help explain the unexplainable (at least from the limited perspective of those that recorded the testament. )

Most of our preconceived ideas about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden come from John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost," published in 1667. He took the Genesis account and greatly expanded it using his creative flair. Milton used his imagination to create "behind the scenes" conversations with God, Satan, and various angels. His additions to the Genesis account have become imbedded in our culture and have caused many people to mistakenly think Milton's account is found in the Bible.

Adam and Eve: The First People to Disobey God
Adam and Eve were the first people to do something wrong. As it is told in Genesis 2:16-17 , God told Adam that he was free to eat from every tree in the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God said that he would die if he ate the fruit. We don't know what kind of fruit this tree had. Milton introduced the idea that it was an apple. Later, Eve was deceived by Satan speaking through a serpent and ate the fruit. She then took the fruit to Adam and he ate it knowing he was doing the wrong thing. Because they disobeyed what God had explicitly told them and chose to believe Satan, they began to experience spiritual death, and soon physical death. God expelled them from the garden. Adam and Eve sinned by placing their desires above what God had told them and through this act sin entered the world. No longer would it be easy to harvest fruit. Thorns and weeds would make planting and harvesting hard labor. Men would have to work to eat. Women would give birth in pain. Animals became dangerous and carnivorous.