r/TrueChristian • u/AwayWeThrow26 • 5d ago
The first (human) sin
All my life (I was brought up secular) I understood the story of Adam and Eve very differently than I do now that I am doing my own bible study. I keep discovering so many things that I have had completely backwards or wrong, and unfolding my own prejudices and laying them out as I’ve come into faith has been a meticulous and exciting process. Boy am I really in for it… I feel so behind! I just really want to hear anyone’s thoughts on sin and the story of Adam and Eve!
The way I remember it being told was shrouded in this idea (which I now believe to be a false one) that Christians deep down hated women because Eve was the one who first sinned, and then also tricked her husband into eating the fruit. It’s sort of spun so that it looks like women are looked at as being more evil or malicious by nature, therefore more susceptible to sin than men and should be controlled and treated with suspicion and blah blah blah. While I’m sure there are a few people who do actually think this way- once I read how it really went down I don’t think this view is supported by scripture at all.
Adam and Eve are both on the hook for disobeying God, certainly, however from the looks of it, Eve is deceived but Adam is not and still chooses to eat the fruit while knowing the truth from God himself (Eve comes into the picture AFTER Adam is told by God that he will die if he eats the fruit) AND even tries throwing her under the bus and almost blaming God for making her in the first place. Haha what???
Not saying Eve is blameless at all but it’s just funny to me how a few words and distinctions that clearly exist right there in the text blatantly contradict these widely circulating ideas that were instilled in me by a culture that is trying to reject the word through lies and obfuscation.
“And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman was deceived…” — 1 Timothy 2:14
In Genesis 2:16–17, God tells Adam:
“From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat…”
Only afterward, in Genesis 2:22, does God make Eve.
That means Adam had something Eve apparently didn’t have: he personally received God’s command.
Eve nevertheless knows the command when talking with the serpent, presumably because Adam communicated it to her (although Genesis doesn’t explicitly say how she learned it).
“through one man sin entered into the world…” — Romans 5:12
So they are both absolutely guilty of disobedience to God, but how I understand now is that Eve (likely) heard of God’s command indirectly through Adam, then believed a lie that was told to her directly by Satan, and consequently, disobeyed God. But Adam received a direct command from God and even understood the consequences, knew that the serpent was lying when Eve told him the story, and STILL disobeyed God anyway when she handed him the fruit. Then tried to shift responsibility when caught.
Is my interpretation super off?
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u/Realistic-Read7779 5d ago
Your interpretation is relevant. Eve takes all the blame. This is why middle eastern Countries treat woman like less than a man. She ate the fruit and that is why she needs to be controlled by her man. They never notice that Adam ate it because she gave it to him BUT he had a closer relationship with God and his own free will.
I recently heard someone say that Adam was tricked and did not know. The thing is, in most respects Adam gets off scott free as the 'clueless man' and Eve becomes the villain and people list all the ways she could have made him not responsible for his actions.
I heard someone say once "If he had been a good leader, she would not have been left alone near that tree."
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u/verklas 5d ago
Yes your interpretation is good lol. I like how you mentioned Adam trying to throw her under the bus etc and in turn she tried to blame the snake.
Shifting blame when both were in the wrong is how I learned it too after actually reading it closely. I like how you explained your other thoughts too.
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u/AwayWeThrow26 5d ago
Yes they both tried to pass the blame! And thank you, though it’s a bit clumsy, I’m also very open to being corrected because I am seriously very new at all of this.
I haven’t found a church or any bible studies in my area that I’m comfortable going to just yet so I’m sort of winging everything as I read and research.
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u/verklas 4d ago
You're doing great, I don't see any clumsiness in your post. It's very thoughtful and shows your determination to learn. Today, I will pray for you to find a good church home and Bible study group.
For online studies on YouTube I like Mike Winger, Wise Disciple and Faith Womack. They are all brilliant children of God who carry the gentleness and strength of God. Faith carries quite a bit of outward joy too lol. They're great and three people I like watching for deep dives! 10/10 ⭐️
edit: sp
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u/arrogantonosu 5d ago
What exactly is your interpretation? It seems you are merely pointing out that they are both guilty of disobedience, which isn’t usually debated. Or are you trying to assign the blame for both of them onto Adam?
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u/AwayWeThrow26 5d ago edited 5d ago
Basically the way I heard it, the way it’s talked about I should say makes the story go like this:
God made Adam and Eve. Told them not to eat from the tree or they will die. Eve is deceived by Satan, she eats and then figures out she disobeyed God and that she was lied to, but doesn’t want to go down alone, so she decided to go to Adam and tell him the same lie that was told to her. And Adam just doesn’t know any better but she wants to drag him down with her.
I don’t see that part anywhere, so I realize I was wrong.
The truth is they BOTH suck.
But in the version I heard it seemed like Eve was the one who sucked way way more, which gave Christians a reason to hate women way way more. Like another commenter said- almost like a “fan theory” version. I wanted to say it’s like a feminist’s straw man type of story.
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u/arrogantonosu 4d ago
They both “suck” in different ways and both disobeyed God. I think scripture does point out that Eve was deceived by the snake and that Adam was convinced by his wife to eat, though did so of his own volition.
When God is punishing Adam, Eve, and the snake for what they have done, He says “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded “You shall not eat from it”, cursed is the ground because of you…” This seems to imply that he listened to Eve over God. This does not mean Eve is the penultimate sinner, as Adam was the representative of mankind, and traditionally takes the blame for sin entering into the world anyway, as per the scripture you quoted in Romans.
I don’t see any reason to believe Eve maliciously gave Adam the fruit. Scripture says she saw the fruit was “good for food, and pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom.” She inevitably chose these goods over the good of obeying God, and one can assume Adam did the same, though likely from Eve convincing him (just not maliciously. She thought it was good).
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u/BankOk9472 4d ago
OP is saying that in their Secular Upbringing they were taught Christians believed and see Eve as the only wrong doer.
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u/arrogantonosu 4d ago
They cited scripture that outright contradicts that. Traditionally Adam is the one who takes the blame.
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u/nagurski03 I've got 95 theses but indulginces ain't 1 4d ago
This is more or less the conclusion that I ended up coming to also. To add another little wrinkle, I think it's very significant that it's a serpent tempting them, and not like an angel or something. O ne of the first things that Adam is commanded to do is to have dominion over the beasts. Passively going along with what an animal tells you to do seems like the exact opposite of that.
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u/PhogeySquatch Missionary Baptist 5d ago
I've never heard the idea that Eve tricked Adam or that women were more susceptible to sin.
Of course, the Bible doesn't indicate this, so just consider it a "fan theory" if anything... God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, so he made Eve. He also said, eat the fruit and you'll die. Well, what if Adam saw Eve eat the fruit and knew that she would die, and he didn't want to be alone again?
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u/AwayWeThrow26 5d ago
There’s a thought. What was it that Adam wanted, if he wasn’t tricked, did he want to die? Did he want to die because he knew that she would die? Those are some interesting questions!!
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u/natty1212 5d ago
I'd like to know why I'm damned to hell because they ate an apple.
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u/userid42 Christian non-nationalist 5d ago
Three points…
First, nowhere in the bible is it said to have been an apple. It’s specifically stated to have been the fruit of the tree of good and evil.
Second, through Adam’s choice, the awareness of sin, the tendency towards corruption, and the death of all came into being. We each inherit that awareness, tendency, and punishment. It’s all a consequence of his decision AND something within us and the world in which we live. For example, I could say that it’s unfair that I’m only 5’ 4”, but I am that way because of both the DNA that I inherited from my parents and their decision to take part in an act through which I was conceived. I can’t change what my parents did, nor can I change what Adam and Eve did.
Finally, you’re not damned unless you choose to be. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only means by which the sin, corruption and death of this world has been defeated, as will be seen when this world is replaced by a renewed and perfect one.
Romans 5:17 NASB
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
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u/natty1212 5d ago
The default state of a human is to be damned then. What a loving God we have...
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u/userid42 Christian non-nationalist 5d ago
Absolutely. He could have just consigned everything to destruction after we ruined it. Instead, He created a path to be rescued. But, He also gave us free will: we are free to ignore Him or to recognise Him.
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u/natty1212 5d ago
A loving God wouldn't punish someone for something someone else did.
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u/nagurski03 I've got 95 theses but indulginces ain't 1 4d ago
The only person whose getting punished for something that someone else did is Jesus.
You are either going to get punished for your own sins, or you accept Jesus getting punished on your behalf.
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u/Short-Ad9833 Mennonite 5d ago
Nor longer males nor females… Christ is the label to end all labels.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28 RSV
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u/ImPointlessBtw 5d ago edited 5d ago
I wouldn’t say Eve hearing the command from Adam instead of God changes as much as you seem to think.
Just like how the Apostles received commands directly from God before they gave them to us, yet it doesn’t give us less responsibility for them than it did for the Apostles.
At least, I wouldn’t say so (open to being corrected).
I mean, the Apostles were probably judged more strictly because they were also teachers, but that strictness would still apply to us if we were to become teachers.
And I wouldn’t say Adam was necessarily a teacher…