Eve, dissatisfied with her status as "God's pet" decides that some wisdom of her own might be valuable. Knowing this was forbidden she decided to do it anyway. Curiosity, and perhaps a spirit of rebellion, such that teenagers tend to have, caused her to be rash. Or perhaps the rule of "don't eat the fruit" didn't come with a clear enough Why. Rules imposed upon us are meant to be broken. Only rules that have emerged from our shared understanding, or are well explained and accepted have value to us. This is the essential lesson of the verse: Don't expect compliance.

The result of Eve, and then Adam eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge was that they came to know—and that was their curse. We seek knowledge, but when we have it don't always want it or know what to do with it. And unlearning is almost impossible. The more we know the more responsibilities we realise we have, and the more is expected of us. We didn't coin the phrase "ignorance is bliss" for nothing!

Still, with a choice of staying cooped up in a prison (as beautiful as it was, the Garden was still a prison) and finding her own way in the bigger, wilder world, I think Eve made the right choice. Adam, on the other hand made no choice, but was rather dragged along for the ride. This may tell us something about the nature of the relationship between women and men today. Perhaps.¹

¹ I wrote more about this verse here: Embracing Original Sin, Grace & Truth, 14/11/21