I went to the temple a few weeks back with the Elders’ Quorum and I asked a few of my friends to ponder a question before they entered the session.
The question was this: “Did Eve eat the fruit at the right time?”
I got a few weird looks, but everyone was willing to ponder on that question and look for answers.
The Fall and the Garden of Eden story has always perplexed me.
Why did God give Adam and Eve the command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil if He were going to curse them for doing so? Do we really think God would give a command that He really wanted broken?
I could never make sense of it and something never felt right about my understanding of how things played out.
Some things that I do feel comfortable with are the following facts:
- Adam and Eve were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth.
- This could not occur in the Garden of Eden, as their bodies were not capable of doing so.
- Death had to be introduced, requiring Adam and Eve to leave the garden.
Did the Fall need to happen?
18 And Cain loved Satan more than God. And Satan commanded him, saying: Make an offering unto the Lord.
19 And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
20 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering;
21 But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect. Now Satan knew this, and it pleased him. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Satan wanted Cain to make an offering unto the Lord but knew that the way Cain was making the offering would not allow the Lord to have respect for it.
Similarly, Satan knew that Adam and Eve were supposed to partake of the fruit, as that had been done in other worlds, but he wanted it done in his ways, and his timing, and from his hand.
God Gives the Fruit
What do I think could have happened? Was there another way? I believe that after Adam and Eve were introduced into the Garden of Eden, they were given time to gain experience and reach certain conclusions. They were first commanded to multiply and replenish, and were then told in Genesis 3:
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
One interesting thing is that in the Pearl of Great Price Eve actually tells the serpent that God told them not even to touch the fruit.
8 And the woman said unto the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
9 But of the fruit of the tree which thou beholdest in the midst of the garden, God hath said—Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
I think God wanted Adam and Eve to have time in the garden to gain experience, and to see that they would not be able to fulfill God’s other commandment to multiply and replenish. It’s obvious that Eve had come to that point, but Adam and Eve should have called upon the name of God at that point to discuss the next steps with Him. Satan came in at the perfect time to confuse them and offer the fruit, which wasn’t his fruit to offer.
Summary
Was the Fall necessary?
Yes.
What was the Fall?
The Fall was physical and spiritual death being introduced to the world. The Fall could have happened without a “transgression.”
What caused the Fall?
Eating the fruit caused the Fall, not necessarily disobeying God’s command. (In other words, if the command to not eat the fruit had been removed, the Fall still would have happened if they ate the fruit because it was the eating of the fruit that initiated the Fall.)
Did God want Adam and Eve to take the fruit from Satan?
In my opinion, and I understand it is an opinion, no. But God knew it was a possibility and prepared for that.
What would have been different if God had given Adam and Eve the fruit?
There would have been no transgression in the garden of Eden, and potentially some of the curses that came upon Adam and Eve would not have been declared? You can read more about the curses in Genesis 3: 14-19 and Moses 4: 20-25.
What Do You Think?
When I posed this question after introducing another way of viewing the Fall on social media, I got responses all over the map. From, “You are crazy,” to “That’s interesting, I’m going to ponder on it more.”
I’ve often thought about this and I think that Eve should have taken the fruit to Adam, before partaking and discussed it. Then they should have prayed about it and asked God.
Some of the early church fathers have written about this, you nibbly also wrote about it. What they wrote is that Satan came into the garden to try and portray himself as God because he wanted all the glory and so he wants to give Adam and Eve the fruit before they’re ready and cause their downfall. Had Adam and Eve waited God would have given them the fruit.
So remember in the temple. God tells Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit and that that he’ll come back and give them further instruction. Adam and Eve fail this first test. Later, Adam and Eve are visited by the three Messengers who talk to them. Tell them to continue what they’re doing and promise to come back later. Adam and Eve wait because last time they didn’t do what they were told. The two things got really bad. So this time they wait and the messengers come back and then give them for their light and knowledge.
Satan is trying to do what has been done in other worlds. Satan’s only on this Earth, is my understanding, and so Satan is trying to give Adam and Eve the fruit in place of God giving Adam and Eve the fruit as has been done in other worlds.
Very short answer. I wish I had the references to the early church fathers that taught this doctrine. But I don’t have it. Sorry.
I’ve often pondered on what it might have looked like otherwise if Lucifer had not sort of jumped in. But where I differ from the article is that I don’t really see a path where the fruit could be eaten without transgression. I think it’s logically designed that way based on how consciousness and intelligence and agency work.
All living things come with instinctual programming in their DNA that allow new born creatures to function at some level. Beyond that the brain is a learning machine. Through experience, the brain pieces together information to make meaning and understanding in reality.
It is believed that synaptic signaling where chemicals and signals transferring between neurons is where memory occurs.
I think Lucifer giving the fruit to Eve is a representation of the initiation of a synaptic connection. The fruit is called the knowledge of good and evil. Prior to partaking of the fruit, Adam and Eve were like babies. No experience, no memory, no building blocks upon which to construct right and wrong. For that to occur, a rule had to be constructed, temptation added, then breaking the rule with consequence to follow. The transgression in the garden is the perfect setup.
Rule: do not eat the fruit. Consequence: You will die. Human brain, no synapses because no experience and no memory. Thus, like little children, doing no wrong nor good. Enter Lucifer. Partake of the fruit. Action taken. Fruit ingested. Now you have a series of synapses by experience connecting and firing. Chemical and electrical signaling. Awareness begins to occur: “by eating of the fruit, I will be cast out”. This awakening is called by Lucifer, “your eyes will be opened and you will have knowledge.”
It really is quite brilliant. The act of partaking of the fruit created the first synaptic stored memory of an experience of right/wrong, consequence. The very first intonation of knowledge. And away we go!
I find your hypothesis regarding Jesus Christ as the true giver of the fruit of knowledge to Adam and Eve to be a thoughtful possibility.
I have considered over the years of my life-long membership in our Church in this way: That our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother and Jesus Christ came to Adam and Eve to present them fully with the Plan and the Purpose for all that was to be accomplished with the choice of partaking of the fruit. I feel that the “fruit” introduced through symbolism, a literal and physical change in the body chemistry of not only Adam and Eve to enable their bodies to bear children. / As the scriptures and our temple instruction teach us, the biological flora and fauna of the earth had already been created to bear forth, “each after their own kind,” prior to what it termed to be ” the Fall.”
To me, our Heavenly Father, who loves us, had a more encompassing “term,” for the changes that would occur with our bodies and our choices than ” the Fall.”
A term that I feel has been used throughout earthly existence to paint Eve and all women as being somehow evil for tempting men to become parents and the falsehood and travesty that innocent babies and children are all ” born from the original sin.” They are NOT, Adam and Eve were married by Heavenly Father when they were cast out into the world, to form the first family on the earth.
I am sharing a portion of my thought-processes regarding Adam and Eve, as our first parents on the earth with care and hope and love that I feel our Heavenly Father desired for all of to have, ideally, even if that is not what earthly life ultimately turn out to be, as we strive to undergo and to journey to completion our sojourn upon the mortal world.
Please share your own thoughts, I would enjoy knowing of yours as well
I joined the church while in college years ago, and wondered what the “further instructions” were going to be that God promised to Adam and Eve? I’d received the insight that there was “another way” than the one Satan proposed. I assumed explaining the “forbidden fruit” and it’s purposes was God’s role that was usurped by Satan, hence his severe consequence. I had not yet resolved the issue that God had forbidden it for Adam and Eve until reading your thoughts of timing, and the authority of God to give and retract his commands. It seems the ability to wait for the further light and knowledge that God promises to send is a hard won discipline for all of us. Thank you for sharing your “opinion”. It has enlarged my understanding. :-)
As a teenager and young adult, I basically thought along the lines that you have shared. Everyone told me to just wait until I went to the temple, and then I would see that I was mistaken. After receiving my endowment, I was like “my idea could totally fit with the temple.” As you say, it is just an opinion, but one that seems to be shared with C. S. Lewis if you have ever read “Perelandra.”
I think that is a very interesting point I work in the temple and quite often have been in the endowment session it would’ve different if Jesus would have been the one to give the fruit and if would have not been a broken commandment.
I love your comment and love how you beautifully explained the situation Eve was in. Thank you so much for thoughtfully addressing this.
Thank you for reading the article and sharing your comment.
Thanks for reading and sharing your comment!
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, it makes more sense to me.
Tara, thanks for the comment. My logic is that the act of eating the fruit would have brought physical death, and because there was physical death, Adam and Eve would not have been allowed to stay in the presence of God because of their mortal bodies, thus leading to them being escorted out of the garden, which would be the spiritual death (separation from God)
When God said to not eat the fruit at the time, I think he meant it.
Mel, great question, and I think you might be on to something. I’ve heard people also say Elohim was the one who was supposed to give the fruit. Satan definitely wanted to insert himself into God’s plan anywhere he could.
@Cody, thankyou very good observation.
@Mel, great question, that’s what I would ask too.
@Tara Lofley, spiritual death is separation from God. Leaving the garden in that case fulfills the spiritual death. Not necessarily the sin that happened through transgression. We can’t return to God once we leave His presence unless there is a Savior to bring us back and pay the price we are unable to pay alone to return.
Ok here’s a question then to follow this line of thinking. We know Adam and Eve were given the fruit “as was done on other worlds”. Does the logic then follow that the Savior gave the fruit to the Eves on those other worlds and that our world was unique because our Eve on our world ate of the fruit from Satan?
I strongly agree what you wrote in this article. Also in my opinion, it’s all our Heavenly Father’s plan for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to save us and to give us the great opportunity to be back to our Heavenly Father’s kingdom. I know there’s the Holy Ghost who is also sent from God above to be our companion, our guide and our protector. I know I am not perfect, that’s why I need our Godhead to be always upon me and all of us and forgive us all our sins.
This is a view that I hold as valid. On my mission there were many people who had some very, very interesting theories about the story of Adam and Eve. We had a visit from a church authority during a mission conference (he was probably an area 70) and during lunch we could pose questions. So I asked some variation of the opinion so many people gave me about their understanding of Adam and Eve and then I added my own question of why, if they had to eat the fruit to obey all the commandments, did they transgress. He answered with another question.
(None of this is verbatim) We are still commanded to multiply and replenish the earth, but we are commanded not to do so until after we are married. Before marriage, sex is a sin. After marriage, sex is a God-given gift. Now we know that Adam and Eve were husband and wife from the beginning, so that was not the issue. But he looked at me and he said something like: maybe it was a matter of order of events. Maybe they were supposed to wait until a time that they were completely unaware of to eat the fruit.
I would further like to add this: as a woman, I can tell you that our bodies were made to have children. The older I get, the more I feel the need for children. I am sure that Eve spent a great deal of time pondering on the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth. When Satan came, she did say no. And then he posed some arguments that hit her at her core. In Genesis 3:6 it says that she saw that the fruit would make her wise. I believe she wanted that wisdom to know what to do to have children and obey the commandments of God. I also believe that she possibly forgot that she could ask God directly and get an answer. She was in a high-pressure situation, forgot that she had God and her husband to turn to, and gave in to the pressure. In trying to obey God’s commandments without all the details, she transgressed. I don’t believe she was trying to be disobedient, because in Genesis 3:13 she promptly confesses and explains what happened.
I believe that it is possible that there was another option, that there was a proper order to be had in the eating of the fruit. Eve simply did what every single one of us has done and did the best with what she understood while forgetting to ask God for help in understanding more.
My thought is, the spiritual death is because of the sin. Logic wise, if it theoretically wasn’t a sin to eat the fruit anymore, then there would have only been a mortal change and no sin. No spiritual death. Until they actually did sin, of course. I think things happened the way they were supposed to. Satan was the fall guy, or mediator, in the way that he was designed to be.
Your observation is very similar to something a religion professor said to my class many years ago. I thought it interesting then, and has made for sense the older I get, and the more times I’ve been to the temple.
I love the fact someone besides myself has had this thought, I came to one conclusion that like on earth siblings we can have one that tries to follow the parents rules to a fault “Jesus” & one that is more adventurous so to speak & thinks outside of the box “Satan” not trying to get into trouble but seems to anyways, so in saying this God had a good idea that at one point Satan would try to persuade (instigate)Adam & Eve to eat of the fruit to see what Father “God” would actually have done. This is a great debate topic that will get a variety of people thinking. Thank you for this thought.
Cheers
Beau Brydges
Something to think about
I have always thought that the plan was to give them the fruit and that it would have been God or the savior, but God knowing all things knew that Satan would step in to usurp. They were blessed after the fall to have their days lengthened on the earth and who knows maybe they wouldn’t had they had longer in the garden.
If Christ had rescinded the commandment to not partake and caused the fall by commandment to partake that would have caused the fall by obedience, with no opposition, which would have made redemption unnecessary, which would have denied the joy that comes from redemption. I believe Satan came tempting to partake pretending to be Jehovah, but Adam would not partake , but Eve did. Why? Not because she wanted to disobey, but because she was beguiled that she had to in order to receive the knowledge necessary to multiply…et cetera. It’s a mystery but basically it’s necessary for us to be redeemed from sin in order to appreciate the sweet joy of becoming like our Creator, and it shows that overcoming evil is necessary for righteousness to be brought to pass, so there’s nothing to fear as long as we accept Christ as our Redeemer.
Interesting to ponder. It has often bolstered me, too. This is a possible explanation. Thanks for posting.
Thank you for sharing your feedback. Understanding different perspectives can indeed provide new insights and deepen our understanding of the gospel.
I had the same impression when I went to the temple. However discussing outside the temple things taught there we were asked not to. To just store up in our hearts those impressions. I don’t say this in any condemnation for I completely understand the desire to have confirmation of those impressions.
No need to reply
I have pondered that so many times and felt that there was more to it than we understood. God does not give us commandments that we can’t obey. Thank you for a very possible explanation.
The Garden of Eden was set up in such a way that God could REMOVE HIMSELF from being a direct influence over what choice Adam and Eve were to make. Even to the point of God the Father and Jehovah had to go away and to leave them to “fend for themselves.” The choices being:
1- be fruitful and multiply . . .
2- do NOT partake of the fruit of good and evil
The “Eternal Law of Justice” would have been violated if God had used undue prompting. Adam and Eve had the veil of forgetfulness placed over their minds so they could make their choice in a simpler environment. Choices one and two were deliberately mutually EXCLUSIVE. They had to exercise their agency to choose one or the other but could NOT obey both!
Lucifer did not come into the garden as a serpent. The serpent was already among various animals inhabiting the garden. The scriptures say that Lucifer had corrupted some of the animals. The serpent had willingly allowed Lucifer to enter its body so that he could use the serpent’s voice to speak with Adam and Eve.
God allowed this to happen. Adam and Eve were given a range of considerations and perspectives. Eve was wiser in intuitively choosing to opt for the ability to concieve and bear children. Before the Fall, their bodies were NOT equipped with reproductive organs.
It makes perfect sense to me. We know Satan is the father of all lies, so when Eve asked him if there was no other way and he said “no”…we can assume that’s a lie and there was another way. When he says he has been doing the same as in other places…we can also assume he had seen it done by someone else before.
When Jesus resurrected the daughter of Jairo and Lazarus, or the widow’s son, he immediately told them to eat something or to be given something to eat…Think about that. Were their bodies perfect when Jesus raised them? Probably! What would make them mortal again if not food that is earthly or corrupt? The fall came by eating the forbidden fruit.
I found your thoughts very interesting and i suppose quite possible…when it is all said and done it is what it is right? Love this perfect plan of salvation/happiness…
I think this is introducing doubt in the words of scripture and distorting the Plan of Salvation. This author is dancing on the edge of apostasy, hoping we will follow.
This subject is probably one of the most confusing in the scriptures. There is obviously more to the story than what we have been given. My enlightenment came in one of the endowment films prior to the current presentation where Eve was obviously upset over needing to make a choice. She knew what was at stake and the hardship they would face and yet she knew what had to be done to bring about the human family. I’ve never looked at it as a sin not to partake but as an option that if they did they would bring about death, which Eve understood.
Dennis Fluhrer
Wow. Very interesting to consider. If that is what happened, that brings a lot of clarity to me.