What is the moral of the Adam & Eve story?

Answer 1

Personally, the best I got out of it was "When people don't know any better, they'll do what they're most recently told." And "People will blame others when they're caught."

I still don't see why the serpent is an antagonist though. If the story were to come out today, no student or professional of literature would say that.

Here's my modern re-telling of the Adam & Eve story:

Two kids are at a summer barbecue while the father wanders off to do who knows what. They see a man standing near the serving table. The little girl says "We can't eat watermelon or we'll die." The man says "You won't die. In fact, watermelon has nice vitamins in it that will enable to grow big and strong like daddy." The kids eat the watermelon. The father finds out. He shoots the man and beats the kids.

Answer 2

Adam was being alone. The serpent was a God's messenger. Remember that God makes the world good at its first dawn; there were not any evil forces at the beginning of the world. So, like as wizard (a good sorcerer) the serpent took a rib bone from Adam in order to provide him a wife (his second side who must stand by him). Both (Eve and Adam) were too naïve and they could not have any babies. So the serpent taught Eve about the nature of the life which was going to be in the next future. The serpent had told Eve about the life, before she was going to understand the knowledge of the life. The serpent warned her that there are evil forces outside the God's garden and the 'outside' is the life. Furthermore, the female side of Adam wishes (for ever) to have babies, so she entered to the world of the knowledge in order to understand what the living world is. Remember, the sin belongs to the ignorant person. To conclude, on the one hand Adam had sinned against the Lord (God) because of his ignorance, on the other hand, Eve put into practice the Lord's commandment (she made the God commandment alive), or she made the right thing (the living beings' duty is to make the world full of offspring). But over the time, the world became more bad and evil than once (maybe because of Eve's offspring); therefore, human beings (men) accused Eve (women) wrongly for her knowledge. God bless the community!

Answer 3

You got a lot of hits on this one. You know how to push those buttons huh. OK. I write as a former Christian, the moral of the Adam & Eve story is about the consequences of succumbing to temptation. The snake which represents 'evil' tempts Eve who then tempts Adam. Whilst Adam may not have been tempted directly by the snake, Eve was. Evil knew how to get to the man. So the moral of the story is the dangers lurking in the 'tree of life'. The consequence of their action is that they are driven from paradise and sent to live out their lives in the mundane world of common mortals. They have to clothe themselves, find food and shelter etc. All of which is considered 'suffering'. Apart from paradise where everything was provided for.
However if we were to continue on this story, it indicates that as humans we became stronger as a result and we strived to create 'paradise on earth'. Would you rather live a life where there is no struggle? Or live a full life which had both suffering as well as joy?

Thank you for your question.

Answer 4

The moral of the story of Adam and Eve is just like every other moral in the Bible. That woman are the root of all evil and that they can be tempted really easily and men shouldnt trust them. You will find this is almost every story except for the story of Ruth and Ester.

In Lot's story the wife turns back because she is tempted by the evil of the land she is leaving and turned to a pillar of salt.

In Joseph's story Potifar's wife tempt's him and then calls out rape and passes the blame on him.

In David's story Bathsheeba bathes in the open therefore tempting him and causing him to kill her husband.

In Solomon's story he is tempted by Delilah and allows his gift from God (his hair) to be cut off.

Jezebel, from the book of revelations, is the demon that represents lust, she is also a woman.

As you can see from my examples so far woman are seen as a temptation for men and only objects. That is the moral of Adam and Eve - that woman are temptresses and the cause of evil.

I am sure that I will get thumbs down for this answer even though there are 6 references to prove my point.

Answer 5

I don't know the moral, but I think it's funny that in the story Eve was made from Adams rib, when in reality all babies start off as females

Answer 6

Adam and Eve represent humankind as pre-cognizant primates who followed instinct just like all the other animals. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represent leaving instinctual behavior and venturing into unknown territory - a freeing concept that carries with it dangers. Eating of the fruit represent mankinds first steps into that territory. Bannishment from the garden represent man's having to face the consequences of this action. He is now free to question his world, make his own decisions and learn new things, however, now the way is sometimes not clear and he must continually learn in order to survive.

Answer 7

There is an aspect of the question, which when considered might just give cause to stop and think. Would there have been a "human - mortal" race had the sin not have happened? Or would there have been perhaps no "being fruitful and multiplying, or perhaps a race of all "angelic people" never learning the difference between Sin and not Sinning?

Answer 8

Bad things didn’t happen in the Garden of Eden. Everything was good as God had made it. All man knew at that time was good.

Genesis 2:9 In the Garden of Eden, God made every tree to grow that was good to see & good for food. There were also two trees in the midst; one was a tree of life, the other the tree of knowledge of good & evil. Since Adam & Eve knew good, this should give you a good warning of what this second tree was.

Satan, knowing good from evil, took advantage of Eve’s unawareness of evil & deceived her. He added just one simple word to what God told her, “not”. He explained that her eyes will be opened & she would be as god.

Innocent Eve, knowing only good, saw the tree sure looked “good” & “good” to eat & Satan said it would make her wise, with her knowing no evil, she saw the tree as “good” so she took part of the tree.

Exactly as the serpent had told her, her eyes were opened and she knew evil.

Yes, God loves all his creation & it all was very good in the beginning; but man, not God, is the cause of what is happening today. No man is innocent as you say; many are loving but still not innocent.
Things such as natural disasters happen because Eve needed to know good and evil and this has been passed down to us all. God is allowing us all to appreciate good.

Ga's peach: I know where you are coming from and you hit the male, I mean nail on the head.

Answer 9

That someone is always passing the buck. Eve blames the snake for tempting her to eat the apple, and doesn't take responsibility for her own actions and Adam blames Eve for tempting him to eat the apple, again, not taking responsibility for his own actions. Yes, the moral of the story is "Let's blame someone else for our own bad decisions!"

Answer 10

Listen to God. Don't be swayed by "evil" inclinations or "the easy way out". Sometimes curiosity kills not only the cat but humans too. Sometimes lack of knowledge can be better than knowing something. If you have doubts, stand up and say no rather than give into temptation.
There are many morals in any story in the Torah.