[lisalisa123]

I truly believe that Adam and Eve didn't physically pick an apple off a tree and eat it, it's symbolic. And, what really happened was the serpent beguiled them into sex and so then they figured out they were naked. Am I the only one? I have a hard time finding people who were taught this way,too.

[Wondergirl]

I grew up in an evangelical Protestant home and was never taught that it was an apple or the sex-beguiling thing. If that was someone's teaching, that someone tweaked the story as they wanted to in order to mess with someone else's head. A careful reading of the first three chapters of Genesis refutes that.

Some churches interpret the Adam and Eve story as literal. Other churches say it's just a story that teaches a lesson.

[N0help4u]

The apple could have more likely been a fig from everything I was taught.
Like, for one thing, if they were near apple trees why did they cover themselves with fig leaves WHEN they 'saw they were naked'?
People say apple simply because it is appealing to the eye and taste.

Genesis 3:6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (no mention of apple)

1 john 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
Between Two Worlds: Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 1

Adam and Eve very well were having sex before they "knew they were naked". Sex was not the sin or a sin with them since God DID create them as man and woman for each other.
Their eyes open and saw they were naked simply means they then KNEW things like embarrassment and their sinlessness nature was no longer existent.

Sex was taught by many religious people to be sinful and dirty even in marriage but the Bible never taught it was sin within marriage.

[MoonlitWaves]

I think people focus too much on the fruit anyway. The fruit is not the point whether it was truly a fruit or whether it was symbolic. Some people wonder what was so bad about eating a piece of fruit. "Come on it was just a piece of fruit." The fruit is not the point, the point was disobeying God.

[Wondergirl]

The apple could have more likely been a fig leaf from everything I was taught.

Nobody's going to tempt ME to eat a fig leaf!

[N0help4u]

Not a fig leaf > a fig
Need to edit:D

[Wondergirl]

Not a fig leaf > a fig
need to edit:D

OMG! Thank you! Aren't they poisonous?

Hey! That would be a great interpretation of the story! The fig leaf that Adam and Eve ate poisoned all of mankind foreverafter.

[Fr_Chuck]

First as I believe was noted the bible no where says it was an apple, merely a fruit. But no, sex would have been a natural ( not a sin or a dirty act) it was merely a part of nature created by God for all animals and man and even reproduction of plants and all.
No where did it way that reproduction was evil or some sin, ( that sounds like like too many years of catholic school)

In fact I fully believe that they had children prior to being sent out of the garden but it was not mentioned since it had no effect on the story of creation and the sin of mankind. My reason for that was part of the punishment was for eve to have pain in child birth, not much of a punishment if she had not known no pain in child birth before.

But as noted it was an act of disobeying God. And that action allowed adam and eve to know what sin was, and with sin, guilt and with guilt shame.

[wayne0418]

There are meny things about gen. that is said to be one way and is not. Was adam created in the garden or was he created and placed into the garden. Where there two sets of people. Gen5 .god created them male and female he created them in our likeness. Then he sleeps and on the 8th day he created adam. What of enock. What about the nefelm. Didn't Jesus free one of legion. There are meny terifing things in the bible. Who did cain have children with in the land of nod.

[Wondergirl]

was adam created in the garden or was he created and placed into the garden.

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. Gen. 2.

on the 8th day he created adam

On the 7th day God rested, so he must have created Adam on the 6th day.

what of enock

What about Enoch?

what about the nefelm

You mean the Nephi? That's in the Book of Mormon.

didn't Jesus free one of legion.

Please give a reference.

who did cain have children with in the land of nod.

Genesis doesn't tell us EVERYthing. We don't know Cain's children's names either.

Where did the land of Nod come from? Who lived in it?

[N0help4u]

You mean the Nephi? That's in the Book of Mormon.

I think he means the Nephilim

Notes on the Nephilim: The Giants of Old

[ScottGem]

I truly believe that Adam and Eve didn't physically pick an apple off a tree and eat it, it's symbolic. And, what really happend was the serpent beguiled them into sex and so then they figured out they were naked. Am I the only one? I have a hard time finding people who were taught this way,too.

Normally, I try to stay out of these things. But the total illogic of this question prompted me to respond. How can you truly believe that the apple was symbolic but the serpent was not?

The whole story is symbolism, In my opinion. It seeks to explain how sin and evil came to be in the world. God, in his beneficence, created an idyllic setting for his creations. But he laid down certain rules. Because Eve defied those rules, man lost the idyliic setting. The lesson of Adam and Eve is simply that defying God doesn't pay. The fine points if the story matter not. At least that's my opinion, You can disagree, rake me over the coals or whatever, but there is no hard and fast proof one way or the other.

Oh and by the way. This has nothing to do with Christianity directly. The story of Adam and Eve is from Genesis the first book of the OLD Testament. The Old Testament is part of Judaism, Chrsitianity AND Islam.

[Wondergirl]

This has nothing to do with Christianity directly.

Yeah, it does. It's the whole reason for Jesus' appearance in the NT. Check Gen. 3:15.

[ScottGem]

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
And between your offspring [1] and her offspring;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise his heel.”

What does that have to do with Jesus?

But again I say that it has nothing DIRECTLY to do with Christianity. This is part of the Old Testament and is therefore universal to all three major religions that stem from the Old Testament. Whether any part of Genesis refers to the coming of a messiah or not doesn't change the fact that the Book of Genesis is common to all three.

[Wondergirl]

What does that have to do with Jesus?

According to most Protestant denominations, Gen. 3:15 is the first promise of the Savior, God making a way out for the mess Adam and Eve had caused.

"The Lord God said to the serpent..."I will put enmity between your seed [Satan] and her seed [Eve's descendant, Jesus]; he [Jesus] shall bruise your [Satan's] head, and you [Satan] shall bruise his [Jesus'] heel."

[wayne0418]

I love these types of debates and questions. It promotes us all to think of God and our beginning. There are many stores. Adam with another woman in some belifes. The issues of relationship. Where did we come from. It is amazing. Gen. is a story passed down thrue the jewes traditions. I don't know about islam. And christian. Some say that if you look at the part where they (Moses) refused to kill the inhabitins of the promise land is where the islam faith came from. The lovers of Bal. christians are jews that believe the mesiah has come. Sorry about the spelling. Yes it was the Nephilim. From gen. What I meant about Enoch was is he the first emortel. For he walked with God and was no more. Did not say died. Every one else seas died. And there is outhers. About the blood line of cain it is almost as well documented as the blood line of sethh. Even saying that music , blacksmithing and many more things came from them. About the fruit. As trans lations have come and gone I believe the original text red fruit. Not fig or apple. The fruit of good and evil. But it is a cech 22 if she did not eat of the fruit then she would not know that what she did was wrong. God merly said fruit bad don't tuch. How meny of us can get away with that with our own children or our self.

[oneguyinohio]

How can you truly beleive that the apple was symbolic but the serpent was not?

The whole story is symbolism, IMHO. It seeks to explain how sin and evil came to be in the world.

Thank you.

And in the name of the religions that each took their own direction after that explanation, so much hatred to others has followed that it seems that the world would have been better served to realize that man's animalistic nature makes him want things his way at the expense of others... as in survival of the fittest. But then evolution is probably a dirty word in this discussion. Funny how even religions experience an evolution process.

[ScottGem]

According to most Protestant denominations, Gen. 3:15 is the first promise of the Savior,

That's an awful lot of filling in the blanks that may not even exist. But even conceding that the connection might be accurate. Genesis is part of the Old Testament which makes it applicable to all three of the big 3 religions, not just Christianity.

[Wondergirl]

That's an awful lot of filling in the blanks that may not even exist. But even conceding that the connection might be accurate. Genesis is part of the Old Testament which makes it applicable to all three of the big 3 religions, not just Christianity.

Those are the blanks that Protestantism fills in in the way I described. The Catholic Church interprets it the same way: CATHOLIC BIBLE: Genesis 3.

Throughout the OT are similar promises of the Savior that are handed down from one generation to another--thus all the turmoil, such as Jacob stealing Esau's birthright, and the lineages of Jesus that at the beginning of the NT.

If you ever have an opportunity, please take an overview course of the Bible to see how the two testaments fit together and how the entire Bible has one big message: Jesus Christ and his two commandments to love God and love one another.

I never said Genesis is not applicable to those three religions. I was telling you what the Adam and Eve story, and that verse in particular, means to Christianity.

[ScottGem]

You are missing my point. I'm not, in any way, disputing the connection of the Old Testament to the New. Or saying that the story of Adam and Eve has no bearing on Christianity.

What I'm saying is, since the Old Testament is common to Judiasm, Christianity and Islam, that any question or discussion of Adam and Eve is not specific to any one of those religions. That is a point of fact, not subject interpretation or opinion.