TL

Mark,
” I would maintain that, at the very least, the preponderance of evidence indicates that God sought out the more craven criminal first.”

That makes excellent sense to me.

” Frankly, if I look at this from a dramatic point of view, I imagine Eve being still a little shell shocked by the whole thing, while Adam knew what he had done all along. It is only fitting that God would deal with the intentional perpetrator before the deceived one.”

Exactly!

” I would hope that would settle the question. Although some people continue to hold out hope that Adam was Eve’s superior in the garden, it is still a baseless hope.”

And pointless of eternal holy values as well. Such a proposal only supports and promotes negatives in life: pride, arrogance, controlling attitudes, demeaning the value of woman’s input, silencing women, giving women personal devalue problems, and great opportunity for abuse from those so inclined.

Kay, this is an excellent Scripture:

” “They shall not labor in vain,?or bear children for calamity…?The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,?the lion shall eat straw like the ox…” (Isaiah 65:23-25)”

It sounds to me as if Isaiah had a different understanding of the Gen. 3 Scriptures than we do today. Isaiah makes good sense.