The third chapter of Genesis contained quite a surprise for me. Like many people, I had accepted that Adam and Eve and their descendants had been cursed for eating fruit from the tree of knowledge; what is known as original sin. That is not what my Bible says.
Many Christians are told we have a “sin nature” that God cannot tolerate and therefore we need a savior to restore a proper relationship with God. I now believe that to be nonsense.
Key to seeing the truth is realizing that the Tree was the Knowledge of Good and Evil and not just the Tree of Knowledge. With that in mind, remember that the last verse of Chapter 2 was, “And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”
In Verse 7, after eating the fruit, “Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.”
Was that really knowledge of good and evil? Before eating the fruit, they were naked, walked with God and were not ashamed. All was well. After eating the fruit, they made clothes for themselves. The knowledge of Good and Evil was false knowledge.
Then in verse 8, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
Who created the separation from God? Adam and Eve hid.
In verse 11, God even asks Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Again, God did not consider being naked evil. It was false knowledge.
God then punishes the serpent by forcing it to crawl on the ground. Eve is punished with pain during childbirth. Adam is punished by having to work the fields to eat.
In verses 22-23, God said, “Behold the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever – therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.”
The couple was sent from the garden as an act of grace not punishment. Their false knowledge interfered with their relationship with God. Perhaps something about death helps restore it.