Religious Studies 101W
Dr. Carr
9/3/2001

  All too often, people take the story Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden literally. It is very likely that nothing from Genesis is historically accurate. There are religious people that would like to not believe that, and think of everything in the Bible as God's honest truth, but the odds are in favor of theories showing the stories to be just that, stories, intended to tell a message but not of actual occurrences.

  There are specific morals and meaning behind everything in the story of original sin. Eve disobeyed God's command to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in turn, sunk Adam into just as much trouble by offering to him the fruit. Not nearly enough attention is given to the name of the tree from which they are forbidden to eat from. The meaning of the story is spelled out blatantly, and yet modern readers tend to focus on other tangents of the story that are not as important. By eating from the tree, Eve and Adam showed several aspects of their mind set. First and foremost, they did not have total faith in God's knowledge and of His benevolence. They did not believe that God had either respectable or intelligent reasons for issuing his order to not eat the fruit. They thought that God was either trying to repress them, and possibly was not seeking to do the best for them. They disobeyed God directly because they thought they knew better than God. In addition to that, they sought to know the nature of Good and Evil...they did not just leave that up to God. They symbolically created their own morals and beliefs, aside from what God had said. They wanted to have knowledge of Good and Evil, instead of just taking God's word for everything. It was for those reasons that they were expelled from the Garden.

  The serpent was probably written in with the idea of the Devil as inspiration. Writers of the story did not put the pen to paper until long, long after the supposed occurrence of the events, meaning many of their own impressions found their way into scripture. Possibly, but admittedly not likely, the serpent was not mean to have any negative image, but instead was simply meant to represent nature. It is natural for humans to be curious about the world around us. In turn, it would make sense that nature tempts us into seeking knowledge of all things...in this case, Good and Evil. That may be the sole truth in the story. Curiosity is natural, but often times has led only to trouble. What if mankind had never sought to understand the destructive capabilities of the atom, or never bothered to gain the knowledge needed to produce biological weapons?

  The second tree in the story, the Tree of Life, may just be the added kick needed to keep readers worshiping God. Taking away the ability to gain eternal life in a literal sense was God's way of punishing Adam and Eve, but more importantly, a symbol of God's strength. "Mess with God, and you will be punished. Look at Adam and Eve, they no longer can live forever."

  The story of Adam and Eve is one meant to teach us about the dangers of our own nature. It also serves, however, to teach us about the nature of God. It is not meant to be a literal story.