The Tree of Knowledge, The Fall of Man, and Who Was the Serpent in the Garden? Part 1

A deep dive into the creation story

In the Bible, in the book of Genesis, we see the story of the first man and woman living in this blissful garden. They are given seemingly free run to do as they please, except to eat of one tree in the “midst” of the garden, the Tree of Knowledge.

Genesis 2:16–17 16. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Well, most of us know how this ends up going. The serpent comes along and “tricks” the woman into eating, and she then gives the fruit to her husband, and god expels both of them from the garden. However, not before punishing their lineage for all time with shortened lives, and cursing the woman (and all future women) to have horrible childbirth pains, as well as cursing the land for good measure.

Genesis 3:16–19 16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18. thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19. in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Oh yeah, and the snake and all future snakes got a good dose of cursing as well.

Genesis 3:14 14. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15. and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

So, what is the lesson we’ve learned here? Well, the lesson the pastor or priest wants you to learn, is that god is the final say on everything. He made a perfect garden for mankind to live in, without any downside whatsoever. Man screwed it up. So, now we all have to suffer and are born into sin.

I guess that explanation is enough for some people if you don’t bother to actually read the Bible and comprehend it at all. What I see is, that prior to eating the fruit mankind must have been in some kind of trance or basically been automatons, or at the very least like naïve children. We can see evidence of this in this verse.

Genesis 3:6–7 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

“Their eyes were opened”, this part of the Bible is called “The Serpent’s Deception”, but I argue that it wasn’t the serpent that lied to man, it was God. God told them in Genesis 2:17 that if they ate of the tree that they would die. Now you can claim that’s true because God stripped them of assumed immortality and cast them out of the garden to suffer. However, that was only a side effect of the fruit because god made it one, as well as the Bible never mentions that they were in fact immortal prior to leaving the garden. The referenced verse made it seem as if the fruit was poisonous, which was not the case. Meanwhile, the serpent told them that the fruit would just give them knowledge and that god was well aware it wouldn’t kill them.

Genesis 3:1–5 1. Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3. but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5. for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

This seems to be exactly what happened. The serpent just told them the truth, whereas god had lied to them. Another interesting point to note, in the above verse is in line 5, the serpent mentions that “ye shall be as gods” plural…not that they shall be as god. Hold on to that bit of info for a moment and we’ll pick back up on it.

So, god puts his new creation in a perfect garden, but sets one trap for them with the tree of knowledge. Even though he’s an all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal being who can see the future, he’s surprised by the fact that they did this? Not to mention, leaving a talking snake that he should’ve known would trick man into sinning. Something about this whole narrative just isn’t adding up. Let’s look at what happens when God returns and notices that they have eaten from the tree.

Genesis 3:8–11 8. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Here, God can be heard walking through the garden. Adam and Eve hide in the trees…god calls out to them like he can’t find them, and doesn’t initially seem to know what is going on. Or he’s faking and knows exactly where they are? None of this seems to match up with the burning bush God, of the Moses story later on, let alone the god of the New Testament. This character seems very physical, and not omniscient even. Unless he’s faking his ignorance, which also doesn’t match up with the character we’re described throughout the rest of the Bible, seeing as that would be him deceiving them by feigning ignorance.

Now let’s follow back up with that “gods” bit the serpent said earlier.

Genesis 3:22 22. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

“The man has become as one of us”, plural. Who is God talking to here? The Christians will tell you he’s just chatting with the Trinity, but followers of the Jewish faith don’t believe in the Trinity. Actually, not all Christians even believe in the Trinity, and those that do, have disputes over the nature of that Trinity.

So was he talking to angels? Why would God need to be consulting with them about anything? They’re not on his level, and this conversation feels more like he’s speaking to peers, rather than a subject. As of this day, I’ve never gotten a satisfactory answer from any Christians or Jews on this verse.

Most explanations from those who follow the faith, say that God was being kind to man, by preventing him from eating of the Tree of Life. Now that man had sinned, they were spiritually separated from God, and the Tree of Life would’ve made them immortal in their sin. So, better for man to have a limited number of days of life, than be immortal in sin, and separated from God.

To me though, this verse sounds like God was actually afraid of what Adam and Eve had become. He said,

“The man is become as one of us” followed by “and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:”.

That sounds fearful to me like man had just taken a huge step up towards equalizing the footing between himself and his maker.

(This article will continue in part 2)