Were Adam & Eve treated a too harshly?

Question

They were uneducated and inexperienced. They had no knowledge of the outside world and no knowledge of good & evil until after they took the apple. They acted in accordance with the nature God gave them. Pinching the apple was their first act of disobedience. Would you throw your children to the wolves for a first offense?

Answer 1

I think so, for there is better ways to express dissatisfaction

Answer 2

I have always thought, as you seem to suggest, that Adam and Eve were deliberately -designed- to go for the forbidden fruit. It was like leaving a four-year-old alone in a room with a wedding cake. if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, they wouldn't have been -human-!

We think of God as 'eternal', which doesn't mean that he lasts for ever, it means that all times are as one time to him. He is in every time at once and can see all of history in one glance. He could easily have SEEN Adam and Eve eating the fruit before he even made them!

Also, there is an old Jewish concept of 'tshuvah', loosely translated as 'repentance'. When you know you have done wrong, when you have made amends and promised (to yourself) not to do it again, then you are better than if you never did the wrong thing in the first place! (This is greatly simplified of course). But if Adam and Eve were to learn from their mistake, they had to make the mistake first.

(BTW, no one ever mentions this but God never told Eve not to eat the fruit, only Adam!)

And God mostly forgave them. He said if Adam ate the fruit he would die, but he didn't kill him right away, he just made him and Eve -mortal-. But again, if man and woman weren't mortal, they would not be HUMAN!

Answer 3

First of all they were PERFECT. They were educated by God himself, and their brains were probably ten times what the smartest person alive today is. Why does everybody assume they were stupid? Being perfect n'all, means that you don't make mistakes. Each action and decision is weighed and measured, and can take Full responsibility for their actions. In other words there is no 'regret'. God told them not to touch the tree, they disobeyed. The Reason they disobeyed was much worse than the actual act. God did not throw us to the wolves either. He could have killed them right then and there (for what comes out of God's mouth shall certainly return to him) but he let them live on for another eight hundred years or so until their perfection wore out. He didn't blame the rest of humanity for their crime and sent his son down to clean up the mess as well. As a loving father he is letting us learn by ourselves that we Do indeed need him and that by humans dictating what is right and wrong on this planet has resulted in the earth calling SOS.

Answer 4

James: You are correct in listing the innocence of both, Adam & Eve - the first humans. To "boot", God pitted them up against the shrewdest Arch angel in history - the Deceiver - Satan ! You would think that God had planned it this way - wouldn't you ? Well ... you're correct - He did !!!
God knew exactly what He was doing or He would not have made Adam & Eve human, for one thing ! God was enacting a plan !!! God wants to have humans to become involved within a relationship with Him - he created humans for this purpose. Firstly; humans have to arrive at the point where they see his or her NEED for God - life in the "human experience" teaches us, that we are NOT God and we need God !!! God starts small and adds on !!! This is why, as you read on, you see the promise of Jesus Christ, as prophesied to come (called "enmity" verse 15). Ultimately; at Jesus Christ's return to earth, ALL humans will have his or her chance - a new start, who have not had it in this life. Remember; there is nothing that happens upon this earth, that God does not know about - He allows it to be that way, for a purpose He has in mind !!!

Answer 5

No, they were not treated too harshly. In fact, God showed them love and mercy after their disobedience. God warned them what would happen if they ate from that particular tree: "for when you eat of it you will surely die." And they did - just as we all will. We will all die a physical death. Had they not been disobedient, there would have been no physical death.

The reason God banished them from the Garden is because, out of His love for them, He couldn't allow them to remain there in their sinful, corrupted states and eat from the Tree of Life. If they had, they would forever remain in a sinful, corrupted state for all eternity.

Instead, He killed an animal and used its skin to clothe them, which was the first allusion in the Old Testament to Christ, who would offer Himself as a sacrifice to cover our sins and restore our relationship to God. God did not just abandon Adam and Eve - He didn't throw them to the wolves as you suggest. If you'll keep reading, in Genesis 4, we see that they still have a relationship with God. He still loves and cares for them. Our sinful actions do have serious consequences, but God doesn't just abandon us because of our mistakes. The entire Bible is a written account of God reaching down to have a relationship with man.

Hope this helps!

Answer 6

Besides disobeying a direct command from God the Father, I believe there was another reason that God did not want them eating any fruit off of this one tree. The clue is in what the tree was called - "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

The Bible tells us that God wants us to be "simple concerning evil." In other words, He doesn't want us crossing over any lines to experiment with, to test out, or to engage in any type of sinful activity - not even one time!

Instead of fruit being on this tree, imagine that there was a bag of pot, a bag of cocaine or a bag of heroin. God’s original plan and design for all of us was that we not even attempt to experiment, even one time, with anything that is sinful such as some of the above items. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death.

Once you cross the line even one time to try and smoke pot, shoot up heroin or snort cocaine - you now have the knowledge of something that is sinful and evil because you have now ingested it - you have now taken it in - you have now officially tried it out. That is why this tree was called the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
God tells Eve that she will still be able to bear children - but that she will bear children in pain. The implication seems to be that had they passed this test - that Eve could have bore children without any pain. This part of the curse not only applied to her, but to all future women that would be born after her that would also have children.

Adam and everyone to follow will now have to "toil" and "sweat" in order to put food on their table. This is why the world is set up where everyone has to work in some fashion. No work - no money. No money - no food.

This curse also explains why many of the bad things keep occurring on this earth. As a result of sinning against God, death now enters into the big picture. Adam and Eve, and all humans to follow, will now have to undergo aging and eventually the death of our physical bodies. All of our physical bodies will now corrupt and die and return to the ground from which God made Adam.

God’s original plan for all humans is that we not sin and that we would obey all of His commandments and instructions. He wanted us to have never tasted the fruit of any kind of sin. But Adam and Eve set the stage as to how all humans would react to this initial setup. They could not abide by God’s specific commands and instructions - so now God is forced to go to plan B.


http://www.bible-knowledge.com/Adam-and-Eve.html

Answer 7

No, they were Perfect in everyway. They got first hand information from God.They choose to disobey and were told BEFORE that if they broke His commandment, the penalty was death. No excuses.

Answer 8

Not at all. It was important to blame them for something that all of their descendants could be punished for as well. God set them up. Isn't that what parents are for?

Answer 9

They weren't uneducated. God plainly told them that if they ate of the fruit they ".....will surely DIE." How dumb to have to be to ignore such a warning?

Answer 10

Thing I noticed they never repented , they instantly blamed the other guy...Eve blamed the snake...Adam blamed Eve.
they never did say OOPS Sorry God.
I think if they would have repented things might be different.

Answer 11

i agree with EFFETTOLL and god gave them anything that they could have ever wanted they just couldent eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil...i dont think that they were because god origannly said that they would die if they ate from the tree...but he didnt kill them he just kicked them out of the garden made labor suck for girls and made man work harder for what they wanted...and before god kicked them out he gave them cloths...good luck!!!