The Fall of Man

Now the serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. And he said to the

woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God said, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" "You will not die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be

opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid

from God among the trees of the garden. But God called to the man, "Where are you?" The man answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid

because I was naked; so I hid." And God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you gave to be with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me,

and I ate." So God said to the serpent, "Cursed are you, on your belly you will crawl and you will eat dust all the days

of your life. And I will put a conflict between your offspring and hers; the seed of the woman will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel." To the woman God said, "I will greatly increase your pains in child bearing, with pain you will give birth to

children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To the man God said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded

you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, for you were taken from dust and to dust you will return." Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. God made garments of

skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And God said, "The man now knows good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So God put the man and woman out of the Garden and placed an angel with a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.