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garden of eden

Creation : Garden of Eden : Cain and Abel

So God made people. A couple of them. Gave them a home, place called Eden. All kinds of beautiful trees and fruit to eat. A garden. Wow. Good life.

Only two things,
Said God.
Eat anything you want. Except for anything off one of them.

Which one?
Said Eve (
or it might have been Adam)

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God said.
Don’t eat from it. Please.

Okay.
Adam said.

Why not?
Said Eve,
Because she was curious.

Because,
God explained patiently,
If you eat off the second tree, you’ll learn about Good and Evil, and you’ll want to know more and more and more, and your lives will get very difficult and troubled.

No prob.
Said Adam.

I’m serious.
Said God.
If you do, you will become mortal. That means you’ll die. So please don’t.

So they enjoyed life. Walking around naked, climbing trees, riding animals, eating fruit.

One day Adam’s taking a nap. Eve’s out walking, exploring. Finds herself at a certain tree. Creatures pops its head out.

Hey.
It hisses.

Hey snake.
Says Eve.

You look pretty,
Said the serpent.
Pretty hungry.

Oh thanks,
Says Eve.
I am. I’ll go pick a fruit over there.

Why not here?
Snake says.

Because,
Eve explained.
God said not to.

Ohhh…
Snake said.
What a shame. A shame.

What’s a shame?
Eve asked.

It’s a shame,
the serpent explained,
that God won’t let you eat it. If you eat it, you’ll be as smart as him and you’ll know everything about good and evil. Sad.

Well…
Eve thought carefully.
I might just try one. Maybe one little bite.

I encourage you to do so.
Said snake.

And so it happened. Eve ate the fruit, the forbidden fruit. Went back to see her hubby and he got mad. Real mad. But then he chilled too.

I guess since you did, I’ll try it too.
He said.

And they did. They knew what they had done was wrong. When you do something wrong, it makes you want to hide that wrongdoing.

It makes you embarrassed. In this case, embarrassed enough to put on clothes. Except clothes hadn’t been invented. So they tried to invent some out of fig leaves and cover themselves up.

God came looking for them. Couldn’t find them anywhere.
Where are you?

Uhh, I’m naked!
Adam said from his hiding place underneath a giant plant.
I didn’t realize you were dropping by, so I have no clothes on!

You don’t even know what clothes are.
God said calmly.
So why are you suddenly concerned with being naked?

No particular reason,
Said Adam.
I definitely did not do anything wrong.

Yep,
Said Eve.
We definitely did not do anything wrong like eating fruit off that one tree.

It sounds to me,
Said God.
Like you ate fruit off that one tree.

Well,
Adam said.
Technically, I had a little bite, cause she thought it would be a good idea. I barely tried any.

Barely?
Said Eve.
You ate five of them and then told me to go get more.

Details.
Said Adam.
So...sorry. Really sorry, God. Won’t happen again.

Yep,
Said Eve.
Really sorry. The serpent made me do it. It wasn’t my choice. I got pressured into it.

God’s heart was heavy.
I am so sorry, but this is what will happen.

Turned to the snake, who was apparently close by.
You will be the most cursed of creatures. You’ll crawl on your belly and eat dust and you will forever be enemies with humans.

Turned to Eve.
You will bear children and it will be painful. Also, pay attention to what’s up for Adam.

Turned to Adam.
You will learn to work. You will plow the ground and you will sweat and labor to survive. In the end, you’ll die and turn to dust. The dust from which you were first made.

As one last gift, God helped make some clothes out of animals’ skins, which worked better than fig leaves.

Then they were forced to emigrate from the Garden and make a long trail of tears to their new home in a forbidding and foreboding land. The way back into the Garden was guarded by angels with flaming swords, which is more interesting than the Buckingham Palace high-hatted stonefaced blokes.

Anyway, that was Paradise, and we lost it.more Bible stories

Genesis

Intro
Creation
The Garden of Eden
Cain and Abel
A Little Flood, part 1
A Little Flood, part 2
A Little Flood, part 3
Abram
Abraham
Abraham and Isaac
Isaac and Rebecca
Jacob and Esau
The further adventures of Jacob
Crafty Uncle Laban
Twins face off
Esau gets his revenge
Joseph the favourite
Joseph’s brothers
Joseph and Potiphar's wife
Joseph in prison
Joseph the dream interpreter
The brothers return
The thieves
The big reveal