14And 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:
15And 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.
16Unto 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.
17And 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;
18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19In 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.
20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
God's response to the situation was to punish the serpent first. No doubt the serpent felt that he had been mistreated as he didn't make them eat the apple. Imagine Satan's justifications, he would have said that he did not violate the rules and that Eve only did what she wanted; but, that misses the point. The serpent was not punished because Eve ate the apple, he was punished because he was not his brothers keeper, he was punished because he promoted others to do evil. It is my guess that he did so to show that he was better than us, better than humans.
The serpent was told that God would make the woman hate him and that her children would hate him. What do you think that means? How does that show itself in history? Better yet, her children would also be Adam's children; but, it doesn't say that his children would hate the serpent. The reason, I believe, is that Eve did not have a name yet, she was still known as Adam, she was still one with him.
When "Eve" was created Adam called her "woman" to signify that she was made from him, after getting in trouble for eating the fruit he chose to call her "Eve". The first name was used to signify no difference other than that she had come from him, she was a piece of him, he loved her as his own flesh. He named her when he didn't even know he was naked and she was naked.
God "punishes" Eve by saying that she shall have pain in childbirth, she will desire her husband and he will be in charge of her. Ever since then the world has sought to make childbirth painless and more importantly teach women to lust rather than desire their husbands. Adam is given a different "punishment", he is told that he will have to work hard all his life and then will return to the earth. As I have often told people, this is not a vacation resort, this is about learning through difficulties.
Here is a question, why did Adam choose to name her Eve at this point, he was happy with calling her woman up until then. He did it so that her children would blame her and not him for what we have to endure in this life. He was being a jerk, in my opinion. Now let me ask another question, Eve may have been tricked into eating the apple; but, Adam was not tricked and God had told Adam not to eat of the tree, he did not tell Eve, at least it doesn't say that he did. Most likely scenerio is that Adam told Eve that God had said not to eat of the tree or at least it is equally possible.
It is a short story, the story of Adam and Eve is given only a few paragraphs in the whole bible. I know someone who told me that they didn't like God because they thought it was unfair that we all had to pay for the sin of two people. This is not about being punished, it is about the nature of our life here on earth. People don't want to understand why life is hard and like having someone to blame. We do not sin because Adam and Eve did not listen to God, we sin because we know good from evil and let selfish urges rule our choices. The story of Adam and Eve is short because it is not the issue we each individually need to address, we need to address why we do bad things much more than how we got here.
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