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Ah, Eve. The original questioner of authority. This story has pagan overtones for me. I see Eve as representative of the followers of the older religions which emphasized the power of goddesses and the wisdom of nature. After all, if it was merely a story of human frailty, Adam could have just as easily eaten the fruit, but it was Eve. Adam could represent the faithful Hebrews -- he heard God's edict regarding the tree

"You may eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Genesis 2:16,17)

and he was content to follow it faithfully. Eve followed it for a while, but eventually, she put more of her faith in the old ways and sought the counsel of nature.

So what made her do it? Personally, I wonder what took her so long to get around to it. The snake told her that God's prohibition against the tree wasn't motivated by concerns for their safety

"But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:4,5)

but rather, a desire to keep them ignorant. Of course at this point, one has to consider the source. A person of the book would point out that the serpent was an agent of evil who was trying to lead the fledgling human race onto a path to damnation, but I'm not arguing from that perspective, so humor me. Eve apparently ate the fruit out of a desire for knowledge and power, and I can't fault her for that. She loved God, but she wanted to stretch her boundaries, to see what she was missing. Herein lies her failure, from the biblical perspective. Liz Curtis Higgs laments Eve's actions, saying "If she desired wisdom, all she had to do was ask, as Solomon did, and God would no doubt have given her all she could handle. But our girl Eve wanted a shortcut to wisdom" (Curtis Higgs 31).

But was it really that simple? Perhaps God would have given her the knowledge she wanted, but perhaps he wouldn't. Eve didn't take that chance, she saw her opportunity for knowledge and she took it. Eve didn't wait around for things to be handed to her, she reached out and grabbed it herself, and I admire that. Compared to her, Adam was a bit of a sheep. This can be seen by his absence from the scene while Eve was deciding whether or not to take the fruit. When he finally does show up

"and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6)

she has just taken a bite. Curtis-Higgs and myself are both troubled by the ambiguity of this scene (Curtis-Higgs, 33). First we see Eve, the snake and the tree, and then all of a sudden Adam's standing there, munching away. Did he just get there? If not, why didn't he join in the 'to eat or not to eat' debate? Whenever he had arrived, he didn't try to stop the events or scold Eve for her sin, he just grabbed some fruit and started eating. Curtis-Higgs mentions that "It took the craftiest creature around to tempt the woman. All it took for the woman to tempt Adam was a question, posed with her eyes and extended hand:'Wanna bite?'" (Curtis-Higgs 33).

This shows the difference in their perspectives. Adam was apparently content to live in Eden forever, bonding with the animals, and eating the kosher fruit. Eve seems more human to me because she was tempted by the one forbidden tree and willing to risk death for knowledge. After all, she didn't know that the snake was being truthful, but the offer was tempting enough that she was willing to take the chance.

Her curiosity and flawed nature appeal to others, like Barbara Grizzuti-Harrison, who says "She (not Mary) is the mother of my chldren, born in travail to a world of suffering their presence may refresh. She is my sister" (Grizzuti-Harrison, 1). Eve is not an unattainable role model like Moses or a savior like Christ. She's a woman who made a decision with negative consequences, she dealt with it, and she ended up living a long and fruitful life.

One last thing I find interesting about Eve is that she and Adam didn't really fully come into being until after the fall. In the Garden, all the animals had names except the two humans, though in some translations Adam's name is mentioned pre-fall. Only after the fall does Eve get her name and later become a mother. In the Garden she had been a nameless, infertile creature who followed all the commands of her god. With her sin came motherhood, identity, and the ability to think for herself, whatever the consequences.

As always, this swingin' background can be found at

and Eve, a.k.a. Lili St.Cyr can be found with a bevvy of other betties at

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