Episode 1b: The Garden of Eden

Genesis 3

3 ¹ Of all the beasts that God made, the serpent was the most clever. He said to the woman,

Did God say you shouldn't eat from every tree in the garden?

^2-3 The woman said to the serpent,

We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden.

Except for the tree in the middle of the garden.

God said, "Don't eat from it or touch it, or you will die."

⁴ The serpent said,

You won't die.

⁵ God knows that when you eat from that tree you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.

⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good food, was nice looking, and would make her wise, she picked and ate its fruit. She gave some to her husband, and he ate it.

⁷ After eating the fruit, they knew they were naked. So they sewed some fig leaves together for aprons.

⁸ Adam and woman heard the voice of God, who was walking in the garden during the cool of the day. So they hid in the trees.

⁹ God said, "Where are you?"

¹⁰ Adam replied,

I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked. So I hid myself.

¹¹ God said to Adam,

Who told you that you are naked?

Have you eaten from the tree I told you not to eat from?

¹² The man said,

The woman you gave me, gave me the fruit and I ate it.

¹³ God said to the woman, "What have you done?"

The woman said, "The serpent fooled me, and I ate."

¹⁴ God said to the serpent,

You are cursed more than all animals.

From now on you'll have to crawl on your belly and eat dust.

¹⁵ You and the woman will be enemies, as will your seed and hers.

It will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.

¹⁶ God said to the woman,

I will multiply your sorrow and make you suffer in childbirth.

You will desire your husband, and he will rule over you.

^17-18 God said to Adam,

Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree, I will curse the ground, make thorns and thistles grow, and force you to eat it all your life.

¹⁹ You will work hard for your food until you return to the ground. For you are dust and to dust you will return.

²⁰ Adam named his wife "Eve" because she was the mother of all the living.

²¹ God made skin coats for Adam and Eve.

²² God said,

The man has become one of us to know good and evil.

Now, before he eats from the tree of life and lives forever....

²³ So God expelled Adam from the garden of Eden, and installed cherubim with flaming swords to guard access to the tree of life.