Eve and the apple?

Question

Just wondering whether the christians feel it unjust that their god is going to punish them because eve ate that apple. You would think that if there was a god he would have forgiven for that after all this time and let us all live forever. I mean it was only an apple anyway. I would have issues about that,and the first thing i would want to ask him is " why do i have to suffer for that,i didnt eat it did i" He sounds a vindictive sort of fellow to say hes supposed to be loving.

Answer 1

If you look at the creation story, especially the Adam and Eve narrative, as literal history, the whole notion sounds absurd, and certainly unbecoming of a magnanimous and moral God.

However, once the Adam and Eve narrative is rendered figuratively you will see that it has deeper meaning. Don’t look at the apple as a literal piece of fruit. The fruit, very well could have been anything else, from an article of forbidden clothing, or an off limits house. Furthermore, don’t look at Adam and Eve as real historical people, living in a time before history. That perspective is childish, and until more Christians abandon that fairy tale notion, they will completely miss the point of the story.

Adam and Eve represent the common traits of mankind, including their faults. The pursuit of the apple isn’t about vying for a prohibited piece of fruit. It is about satisfying ones own wishes and desires, at the expense of what is right and what is respectful to our Creator. The point is there are things in this world that should be not allowed. There should be desires that are never quenched, because such restrictions are for our betterment. Our tendency to violate these precepts consistently leads to our enslavement to life’s maladies.

True liberation, according to Adam and Eve’s fall, is to surrender our ambitions to God’s will. Ultimate happiness according to this story isn’t in satisfying our fleeting desires or partaking in temporal pleasures, but to constantly fixate on communing with God. Our insistence on putting or own wants over what God intends for us will only lead to heartache and separation from him.

Given that we are perpetually sinning, and intrinsically inclined to sin, as illustrated in the allegory of Adam and Eve, our own efforts can never redress the wrongs we have committed against God, or mend the rift that has formed between our Creator and ourselves. Thus, Jesus’ sacrifice is offered as remittance for all our vices, and it is his atoning act that gives our efforts to be moral some legitimacy in the eyes of our Creator.

That, to put it succinctly is the significance of Adam and Eve as it was intended to be written. It is also, in a nutshell, the essence of Christianity.

Answer 2

First of all (this is to the other question answerers), several people have stated that it is not known that the fruit was an apple. Don't you people read the other answers before posting your own answers? And some of you were pretty rude, too--despite your claims to be Christians. You're not setting very good examples when you do that, you know.

Now, getting back to the original question, maybe it's a way of saying that we are all in this together? Or, maybe it's just saying that they brought sin into the world and now we have to deal with it. So many questions, so little time.

Answer 3

It wasn't the devil who tempted Eve but a serpent. Some of these Bible thumpers don't know their Bible so well. It was punished by having to crawl on its belly and eat dirt. The Devil doesn't do that. He hadn't been invented when Genesis was written. He is copied from Ahriman the evil god in Zoroaster of Persia's religion during the Persian Captivity. God sent both good and evil in many tales, e.g. God hardened Pharoah's heart, but the devil would've done it if he had been invented. The earliest account of David's census says God inspired it. Another verse written after Persia says the devil inspired it. What a glaring contradiction! It is stupid to blame all men for anything one man does. Indeed, it is neurotic. If there really had been an Adam and Eve, I have no guilt over what they did. They didnt exist, so there is no basis for saying men are born into sin. That is just a con game to create a need for the services of priests to get forgiveness for this imaginary sin. They accept credit cards I suppose. I deny any sin and tell priests who try to make me feel guilty over nothing to go to the Hell they invented. Too bad they cannot. It should exist just for them to be sent to it for all of the misery they cause to get money for nothing.

Answer 4

You can be free by returning to innocence again. God is still there between two thoughts! Thinking was the apple in the tree of knowledge! If you stop judging and analyzing then you actually stop thinking and you become one with god in the here now. Time is an illusion and time only exist in the mental. Meditation can help with this , another way is taking a look at two books that I highly recommend .:

1) The voice of knowledge: Miguel Ruïz
2)Practicing the power of now: Eckhart Tolle

Answer 5

For one thing it was not an apple, it was a fruit off of the tree of life. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and they were punished and as their children we are punished. The forgiveness of sins happened when Jesus died on the cross. All that accept Him as their Savior are forgiven.
By Adam and Eve eating the fruit they committed a sin, we were born with that sin. I hold no grudge against them because I do believe that Christ died for US.

Answer 6

God is greater than I am and more powerful as well. HE is my creator and He calls the shots. And just for the record. Eve did not eat an apple. It was a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. No where in the bible was that fruit referred to as an apple.

Answer 7

not an apple... it was a fruit... think of it as a tasty hand grenade

but the world is like that... children suffer because of the mistakes of their parents oftentimes... innocent people suffer because of guilty...

actually the command was given to Adam before Even was made and to Adam alone at first. Eve was tricked but it was Adam that sinned with his eyes wide opened

Adam had ability to choose good or evil... as a result we have natures..falled human natures tinged with evil... we have free will.. but its a will tinged with evil and will freely choose to run away from God... when it comes down to it... you can be condemned for your own sins not merely inheriting a fallen nature from Adam and having death enter the world through Adam

it isnt merely that Adam sinned federally for mankind...
Jesus dying on the cross federally is similar and provides salvation for those who believe

that fruit may as well have been a hand grenade because death entered the universe and all the creation fell It was the ground zero of sin and suffering for the human race and all of creation pulled down with it... but there is a solution

Answer 8

Well, Eve and of the tree of good and evil. When God made the Garden of Eden, he told they could eat of any frut tree in the garden except that one. He gave them a choice, and Eve decided to eat of the tree. It is unfar, that we ahve to be punished, yes, I believe that, but that is no reason not to believ in God. He promised an eternal life, if we accept him as our personal Savior and ask him for forgivness. I hope some of this is making sense. But, Eve was tempeted and she gave in, so in a way it taught us a lesson, give in to temptationa nd your punished. God forgave her, and her sin was forgotten, but since she disobeyed, she was punished. Like when a little kid disobeys their parents, the get in troulbe, or maybe wevn a spaken, but the parent forgives the child, and still loves them.

Answer 9

That apple is just a metaphor for the real problem.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they traded away their birthright to the devil, and ended up as his slaves.

Anyone who knows anything about slavery knows that the offspring of slaves automatically become the property of the slave holder.

The effect of Adam's sin was to enslave the whole human race under the evil rule of Satan, the devil, forever.

This was indeed a permanent state of affairs, as man had no ability to remedy the situation.

That's why God sent his Son ... to destroy Satan's power, and to redeem us.

Only God could do it. And it wouldn't be easy, even for him.

It took thousands of years of preparation, 33 years of Christ's earthly existence, and a lot of suffering.

In the end, it even cost him his life.

Sounds loving to me!

Answer 10

Sweetie-pie........
We all know it was'nt an apple,that's a Snow White tale.
The fruit is representory for sin.
We are human and we all sin.
We all eat that fruit everyday in life......(not me,cuz I'm perfect).....but most everyone.
The fruit was probably more like the pomegranate......so many seeds!
I'm a Christian....(most of the time)....and I don't find my God unjust AT ALL.
In fact,I find God rather knowledged and overly understanding that we,as humans,would eat of this sinful fruit because He made us and obviously isn't unaware of our worldly behaviors.GIVE HIM SOME DAMN CREDIT! He did after all CREATE the fruit we put to our lips and also the human nature of Freewill that decides to put it to our lips.
Best wishes.
By the way......Is'nt God awesome.
GOD LOVES US.