The Birth of Cain and Abel and the First Murder

The serpent wept for her. That was the cruelest part. It pretended to grieve for her ignorance while plotting her destruction.

"May God live!" the serpent said to Eve, its voice dripping with false compassion. "I am grieved on your account, for I would not have you remain ignorant. Come here. Listen to me. Eat, and understand the true value of that tree."

Eve hesitated. "I fear God will be angry with me, as He warned us."

"Do not fear," the serpent whispered. "As soon as you eat, you will become like God -- you will know good and evil (Genesis 3:5). God knows this. That is why He forbade it. He was jealous of what you might become."

Still Eve resisted. The serpent pressed harder: "Look at the plant. See its glory." But she would not reach for it. So the serpent changed tactics. "Come here. Follow me, and I will give it to you."

Eve followed. The serpent walked a short distance, then turned and said: "I have changed my mind. I will not give you the fruit unless you swear an oath -- swear that you will also give it to your husband."

Eve swore. By the throne of the Master. By the Cherubim. By the Tree of Life itself. She would share the fruit with Adam.

The serpent took the oath and poured upon the fruit the poison of its wickedness -- lust, the root and beginning of every sin. It bent the branch down to the earth. Eve took the fruit. She ate.

In that very hour, her eyes were opened. She knew instantly that she was stripped bare of the righteousness she had worn like a garment. The glory was gone. She wept. "Why have you done this to me? You have stolen the glory I was clothed in!"

But the serpent was already gone. It had descended from the tree and vanished, leaving Eve naked and alone in her portion of Paradise.

She searched desperately for leaves to cover her shame. There were none. The moment she had eaten, every tree in her territory shed its leaves -- every tree except the fig. From the fig tree she took leaves and made herself a covering. The very tree whose fruit she had eaten now clothed her shame (Genesis 3:7).

Then Eve called out: "Adam, Adam, where are you? Come to me -- I will show you a great secret!"

When Adam came, the Adversary spoke through her. Eve opened her mouth and the words of transgression poured out -- words that would bring them down from their glory. "Come, my lord Adam, eat of the fruit of the tree God told us not to eat, and you will be like God."

Adam said: "I fear God will be angry."

"Do not fear," Eve echoed the serpent's lie. "As soon as you eat, you will know good and evil."

He ate. His eyes opened. He saw his own nakedness. And his first words to Eve were devastating: "O wicked woman! What have I done to you, that you have stripped me of the glory of God?"

In that same hour, the archangel Michael blew his trumpet. The call rang across all of creation: "Thus says the Lord -- come with me to Paradise and hear the judgment I will pronounce upon Adam."

God appeared in Paradise, mounted on the chariot of His Cherubim, with angels going before Him singing hymns. At the sound of His approach, every plant in Paradise burst into flower -- as if the garden itself still loved its Maker, even as its guardians had failed Him. God's throne was set beside the Tree of Life.

"Adam, where are you?" God called. "Can a house hide from the one who built it?" (Genesis 3:9)

Adam answered from his hiding place: "I was not trying to hide from You, Lord. I was afraid because I am naked. I was ashamed before Your power."

"Who told you that you are naked," God said, "unless you have broken the commandment I gave you to keep?"

Adam remembered Eve's promise -- "I will make you safe before God" -- and turned to her: "Why have you done this?"

And Eve, stripped of glory, stripped of lies, finally spoke the truth: "The serpent deceived me" (Genesis 3:13).

Then the serpent saith to me, "May God live! but I am grieved on your account, for I would not have you ignorant. But arise, (come) hither, hearken to me and eat and mind the value of that tree."

2,3 But I said to him, " I fear lest God be wroth with me as he told us." And he saith to me: "Fear not, for as soon as thou eatest of it, ye too shall be as God, in that ye shall know good and evil. But God perceived this that ye would be like Him, so he envied you and said, Ye shall not eat of

5,6 it. Nay, do thou give heed to the plant and thou wilt see its great glory." Yet I feared to take of the fruit. And he saith to me: "Come hither, and I will give it thee. Follow me."

And I opened to him and he walked a little way, then turned and said to me: "I have changed my mind and I will not give thee to eat until thou swear to me to give also to thy husband." (And) I said. "What sort of oath shall I swear to thee? Yet what I know, I say to thee: By the throne of the Master, and by the Cherubim and the Tree of Life! I will give also to my husband to eat." And when he had received the oath from me, he went and poured upon the fruit the poison of his wickedness, which is lust, the root and beginning of every sin, and he bent the branch on the earth and I took of the fruit and I ate.

And in that very hour my eyes were opened, and forthwith I knew that I was bare of the righteousness with which I had been clothed (upon), and I wept and said to him: "Why hast thou done this to me in that thou hast deprived me of the glory with which I was clothed?" But I wept also about the oath, which I had sworn. But he descended from the tree and vanished. And I began to seek, in my nakedness, in my part for leaves to hide my shame, but I found none, for, as soon as I had eaten, the leaves showered down from all the trees in my part, except the fig tree only. But I took leaves from it and made for myself a girdle and it was from the very same plant of which I had eaten.

And I cried out in that very hour, 'Adam, Adam, where art thou? Rise up, come to me and I will show thee a great secret." But when your father came, I spake to him words of transgression [which have brought us down from our great glory]. For, when he came, I opened my mouth and the devil was speaking, and I began to exhort him and said, "Come hither, my lord Adam, hearken to me and eat of the fruit of the tree of which God told us not to eat of it, and thou shalt be as a God." And your father answered and said, "I fear lest God be wroth with me." And I said to him, "Fear not, for as soon as thou hast eaten thou shalt know good and evil." And speedily I persuaded him, and he ate and straightway his eyes were opened and he too knew his nakedness. And to me he saith, "O wicked woman! what have I done to thee that thou hast deprived me of the glory of God?"

And in that same hour, we heard the archangel Michael blowing with his trumpet and calling to the angels and saying: "Thus saith the Lord, Come with me to Paradise and hear the judgement with which I shall judge Adam." And when God appeared in paradise, mounted on the chariot of his cherubim with the angels proceeding before him and singing hymns of praises, all the plants of paradise, both of your father's lot and mine, broke out into flowers. And the throne of God was fixed where the Tree of Life was.

And God called Adam saying, "Adam, where art thou? Can the house be hidden from the presence of its builder? "Then your father answered; "It is not because we think not to be found by thee, Lord, that we hide, but I was afraid, because I am naked, and I was ashamed before thy might, (my) Master." God saith to him, "Who showed thee that thou art naked, unless thou hast forsaken my commandment, which I delivered thee to keep (it)." Then Adam called to mind the word which I spake to him, (saying) "I will make thee secure before God"; and he turned and said to me: "Why hast thou done this?" And I said, "The serpent deceived me."