The other day I asked this question to my 89-year-old mother. Her answer was, “I don’t believe that for a minute. She knew exactly what she was doing.”
It is impossible to know the precise degree to which Eve may have made her decision (about eating the fruit) by being swayed by Satan’s temptations or based on a clear understanding of the situation. (The whole story is likely “figurative” anyway). But it is interesting to examine the various opinions people have had about Eve.
Blaming women
For centuries, churches, especially Christian churches, have used the story of the Fall of Adam and Eve to place women in a subordinate position to men.
In the Book of Ecclesiasticus (also known as The Book of Sirach), written by Ben Sirach (approx. 200-175 BC), the blame for the Fall is placed squarely upon Eve.
From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die.
Sirach 25:24
Several early fathers of the Christian church taught that not only was Eve responsible for the Fall, but that all women shared in her guilt. Tertullian (155 AD-220 AD) said that women were “the devil’s gateway.”
Augustine, whose writings in the 3rd Century greatly influenced the development of Western Christianity, coined the phrase “original sin” to describe a doctrine in which ALL people are seen as born morally corrupt because of Eve’s disobedience. Augustine even believed that, because of this corruption, unbaptized infants who die go to hell.
Not responsible for another’s acts
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not teach the doctrine of original sin. The second Article of Faith is very clear about this.
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
#2, Articles of Faith, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
In fact, LDS doctrine teaches that the “Fall” of Adam and Eve was a positive forward step in God’s plan for His children. But this positive view of the events in Eden does not mean we have not inherited some false negative ideas about women.
What do the scriptures say happened?
The key scriptural verse on this topic is Moses 4:12.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it became pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make her wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
Moses 4:12
There are two ways to read and interpret this verse. The standard way is to believe that Eve was seduced by the serpent.
The verse specifies three things that Eve considered before she took the fruit and ate. “Good for food” was an appeal to appetite. “Pleasant to the eyes” was an appeal to the senses; and “desired to make her wise” was an appeal to vanity. These temptations may have caused her to ignore the rule and eat of the fruit.
The other way of reading this verse is to assume that Eve was NOT fooled by Satan’s clumsy attempt to destroy God’s plan. She may have been considering the situation carefully.
First, she noticed that the fruit was not poisonous, it was a food. Food is nourishing to our bodies.
Second, the fruit and the tree were visually pleasing. There is a familiar phrase that “looks can be deceiving,” but there is also an entire branch of philosophy, called Esthetics, that deals with the close relationship between beauty and truth. It may have been that in noticing the beauty of the fruit, Eve was seeing the truth of the situation. It is worth noting that the fruit was not beautiful in itself, but that it became beautiful as she thought about it.
Third, Eve understood that wisdom is a good thing to pursue. She was correct in this belief. The desire that awakes in her is for wisdom, not vanity – and certainly not lust (as some Christians would have us believe).
What were the consequences of the choice?
When we read this story, we always seem to focus on the embarrassment (“naked”), the confrontation (“who told thee?”), the confessions (“I did eat”), the sorrow (thou shalt bring forth children”), the cursing of the ground (“thorns also, and thistles”), and the casting out from the Garden.
I believe the more important part of the story happens in Moses chapter 5. An angel shows up and teaches Adam about the redeemer, Jesus Christ. The angel tells Adam to repent and pray in the name of the Jesus “forevermore.”
And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.
Moses 5:9-12
And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.
And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.
And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.
Understanding the lesson
Whether or not, in her initial state of innocence, Eve was fully aware of the consequences of her decision, Latter-day Saints believe that by the time she offered the fruit to Adam, she understood the situation completely. Indeed, Eve is the one who explained the situation to Adam. He listened to her and wisely decided to partake of the fruit so they could stay together.
The Fall of Adam and Eve is an archetype of a process we all go through in life. As adults, none of us are innocent. Hopefully we have been using our time on Earth to grow, learn, and progress. Jesus is more than willing to redeem us from our sins. Like Adam and Eve, we just need to repent and follow Him.
Sources
– “Original Sin,” Wikipedia.
– “Tertullian,” Wikipedia
– “Augustine of Hippo,” Wikipedia.
Alice Ogden Bellis, “Eve: Apocrypha,” Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, December 31, 1999.
Those early Christian church fathers really did a number on the female half of the world through their opinions about Eve. They weren’t the only ones, though. I now have on my bedside table four books examining how this issue. What a shame both sexes couldn’t have been on equal footing down through the millennia. Image where humankind could be now if that had been the case.
Having grown up in the Church, I have noticed that women generally are quicker, more efficient, and more valiant in their callings than are men. In most families–even among the very elect–women tend to drag their husbands along to salvation. Just as boys mature later than girls physically, men mature later in life spiritually than women do. Just a fact. Eve saw and knew her stewardship. She did what she knew was right and what she knew must be done. Adam eventually figured it out as well and came along. Heaven help us men in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We’ll get there. But not without our women.
So we are going with the assumption that the discoveries of biology, e.g. DNA, and the geologic timescale are simultaneously true with Adam and Eve? Sorry to bring this up, but it is the elephant in the room.
So if you think about it, what would happen if she didn’t partake of the fruit? By the way it wasn’t an apple. There would be no plan of salvation. This gave Adam and Eve agency to choose and they chose to partake of the fruit and when they did this, and open the door for the plan of salvation. You could say that it had to happen otherwise there would be no other children and they would’ve been in the garden forever.