Category: Religion, Myth, and Theology

THE FALL DE-ABRAHAMIZED

The Fall

The King built a great garden with high walls and named it Eden. Angry that it was not perfect without innocence, he purchased from slavers, two most beautiful children, and raised them with the birds, animals, fish, fruits in his garden named Eden. The boy he named Adam, and the girl he named Eve.

The King raised to the boy and the girl in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the King commanded them, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Adam and Eve tended the garden, ate all they wanted from it, and knew nothing of the world beyond its walls save the sounds of birds, the rain and the wind.

The king brought to the garden all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to Adam to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

Now among the animals of the garden was an evil serpent, who was jealous of the love of the king for Adam and Eve. The serpent was more crafty than any of the other animals. He said to the woman, “Did the King really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but the King did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For The King knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be as free men, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the King as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the King among the trees of the garden. But the King called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Then the King said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

So the King said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!

I send you to the desert where you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.”

To the woman Eve he said, “From my garden I cast you. Know that your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you. And with painful labor you will give birth to children.”

To the man Adam he said, “From my garden I cast you. Through painful toil you will eat food from the land all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

The King gave garments of skin for Adam and his wife and to cloth them. And the King said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.”

So the the king banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which they had been taken.