Waneta Dawn

Concerning Adam’s failure and treachery:
Adam was given the job of keeper of the garden. That included something like security guard. I believe Eve was also given the job of security guard. (Since “Adam” is used both for the man and for Adam and Eve together, it can be difficult to recall which is which, and I do not have the time to look it up now.) If the security guard of a jewelry store stands by and watches while the valuables are being taken, that is treachery. If he also helps take the jewelry, that is double treachery and totally inexcusable.

If the person who first took the jewelry was his security-guard partner, he would still have been required to say or do something to stop the theft. Doing nothing to correct a partner is also treachery–especially when he can tell his partner is getting misinformed, even if it is by a fantastic talking creature.

Today we’d call Adam’s action Embezzlement. We have little sympathy for those who embezzle from their bosses. We aren’t even sure if we can trust the spouse and children of the embezzler. (That is how we feel about a student whose mother embezzled from the school. Did he know about it? Was he complicit with her? Was the husband in on it?) We do, however, understand the horror and embarrassment one feels when they realize they have been hoodwinked by a con-artist. Thus, although Eve sinned, hers was not on purpose. Adam sinned twice; once by his silence when his partner was being conned and as a result chose to embezzle from the boss, and again when he also chose to embezzle from the boss. Or is that sinning 4 times, since he was silent as Eve was being conned and also when she was helping herself to the fruit, and then again when she gave him the fruit and yet again as he ate the fruit?

What was his motivation? Was he so deeply in love that he didn’t want to say anything? That is like suggesting a man is so deeply in love he says nothing as his love walks out in front of a speeding semi.

Perhaps he wanted to see what “die” means. If creationists are correct, there would have been no death up to that point. If teenagers cannot grasp the concept of death, how can we expect someone who is in a world where death has never happened to grasp what that is?

Could it be that Adam really didn’t believe God? I suggest he wanted to see if anything happened to Eve when she ate the fruit. When nothing appeared to happen, he ate it, too, in essence agreeing with the serpent that God was a liar and they would not die. Yet, the Bible does NOT say that Adam was deceived. I think Adam had been thinking of eating the fruit, himself, before Eve did, and that he jumped at the opportunity when he saw that Eve did not keel over, dead. Yet, the Bible doesn’t judge him for his pre-thinking. It condemns him for his ACTION.