To recount the tale of Adam and Eve, one can skim the pages of the biblical text found from Genesis 1:26 to Genesis 5:5. Genesis 1 reveals how God created humans (male and female) in His image, giving them the authority over all other living things. In his commands, he tells them to “be fruitful and multiply.” In this article, we will make references to Adam and Eve in accordence to the Book of Genesis.
The beginning of Genesis 2 depicts God creating man from dust and then blowing life into his nostrils. A garden is planted by God (the Garden of Eden) and man is placed there. He tells them that all the trees in the garden can be eaten from, but makes an exception with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He states, “for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.”
God goes on to create animals, and goes about locating a mate for man, but nothing he had created at the time would make due. After God causes the man to fall asleep, he creates a woman using his rib. She is named “woman” because she is the “one was taken from a man.” This is why it is said that a man leaves his mother and father to “cling” to a woman. At the end of Genesis 2, it is stated that both man and woman were naked and not ashamed of their appearance.
The Serpent makes an appearance in Genesis 3 and is described as “slier than every beast of the field.” The serpent wishes to lure the woman to eat from the tree of knowledge, filling her head with the notion that eating the fruit will not cause any death. However, she falls victim to the serpent’s ploy, not only eating the fruit but giving some to man. This causes “the eyes of the two of them were opened.”
It is now that they become aware of their naked bodies, using fig leaves for coverings in an attempt to hide from the sight of God, who quickly notices that man and woman have disobeyed His commands. The two become cursed with hard work and painful childbirths. They are also exiled from the Garden of Eden. In the closing verses of Genesis 3, the woman is named Eve because “she was the mother of all living,” while Adam is given to the man.
Throughout Genesis 4 and 5, the tale of the family of Adam and Eve is told, focusing on their lives after they departed the Garden of Eden. They now have three children: Cain, Abel, and Seth. In coming years, other sons and daughters will emerge, as Adam lives for more than 900 years.
Excerpts of Text , the Bible
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground”trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die.”
18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.