When we look to all the greatest love stories in the history of our world, it is most likely that the story of Adam & Eve is not even on the list. Typically we hear of Romeo & Juliet, or Samson & Delilah, but hardly ever a word is heard of the one, and only, perfect love story ever told. By perfect I mean, that they loved each other in perfection, as the only ever perfect couple to exist since the beginning of creation. In fact...this is a love story that has NEVER been told.

In all of history, two mates have never experienced the love that Adam & Eve must have felt for each other. When Adam saw Eve his first words were:

“This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” Genesis 2:23

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No doubt he had great appreciation for Eve, and how pleased he must have been to have her as his mate and eternal companion, as she was not only, literally a part of him, but a compliment to him in every way.

Of course the story about Adam & Eve, and the test given in the Garden of Eden is quite short which is perhaps why we rarely hear of them. There just isn’t enough juice, as they say, to make a good love story out of the account based on what we have from the scriptures.  Besides, we already know what happened. They failed to make the right choice, and now we are paying the price for it, so what kind of love story does that make?

Well, what exactly makes a great love story?  You obviously need at least two people in love, a villain, some kind of tragedy to test that love, and finally one or both people die in the end.  It’s a pretty simple formula that has been played out in literature for countless ages.  Based on those simple guidelines then, Adam & Eve should be one of the greatest love stories ever told. So why is it we don’t perceive it as such?

Maybe...we are looking at it from the wrong perspective.

When most people read the account of Adam & Eve, they just see the before and after the sin that is portrayed, but don’t really consider the event as anything more than a test of loyalty given by God.  Nothing really seems to result from the story except for the obvious, that disobeying Gods commandments ultimately resulted in their deaths, and ultimately led to the deaths of the entire human race since.  From that viewpoint, most come to the conclusion that the test of loyalty was a huge failure.  But was it?  

‍Was Gods commandment to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad a test designed to ascertain their loyalty, or was there another reason God was concerned about Adam & Eve eating from the tree that can help us understand the direness of the situation that the couple were in? In answering this question, not only will we see the account from a different perspective, but we will also see the greatest love story ever to exist begin to unfold.

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Consequently...

To begin...we start with the account at Gen 2:16-17 which tells us of the command from God to Adam, it states “And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: "From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. 17 But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die."  

Eve also knew of the command as well. Although we don't know if God told her directly, or whether it was conveyed to her by Adam, it says at Gen 3:2-3 “At this the woman said to the serpent: "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. 3 But as for [eating] of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'YOU must not eat from it, no, YOU must not touch it that YOU do not die.'

Both Adam & Eve were fully aware of the fruit, and yet they did not look to it as for food.  

In fact, it wasn't until Satan pointed out the fruit on the tree, and tempted her to be like God, that Eve even considered the possibility of eating from the tree in the first place.  At Gen 3:5-6 the devil tempts her saying:

“ For God knows that in the very day of YOUR eating from it YOUR eyes are bound to be opened and YOU are bound to be like God, KNOWING good and bad.” 6 Consequently the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was something to be longed for to the eyes, yes, the tree was desirable to look upon. So she began taking of its fruit and eating it. Afterward she gave some also to her husband when with her and he began eating it. . .”  

Lets play this back. In order to even get Eve to look at the fruit as good for food, Satan had to sin.  It was only until Satan tempted her with the first sin ever, the lie, that Eve was deceived, and therefore saw the fruit as desirable to look at, and eventually ate.  Had Satan not sinned first, it is most likely she would have never eaten the fruit in the first place.  Her choice was a consequence of that sin committed by Satan, which directly resulted in Eve seeing the fruit in a new light, and the aftermath that soon followed.
 
Please consider that up until the first lie by Satan, a lie had never been told in all of history.  From Eve’s perspective, she was hearing two truths.  God said she would die, Satan said she wouldn’t.  The possibility that Satan was lying wouldn’t have even occurred to her, for she didn’t even know what a lie was, because lies simply didn't exist.  In trying to reconcile the contradiction, Eve obviously gave the benefit of the doubt to Satan, and gave into the influence of the flesh, and the benefits of what she felt the fruit offered her. Eve was seduced by what she thought was truth.

"...the woman was thoroughly deceived..."  1 Tim 2:14

The sheer magnitude of what Satan had accomplished is analogous to what happens when an unstoppable force(sin) collides with an immovable object(Gods Purpose).  Thus was the power of the first lie by Satan, as it was the first time in history that a creation of God not only used their free will for the knowledge of good, but also bad.

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Did Adam "really" blame God?

 
So, you may be wondering by now, where does the greatest love story part come into all this? I promise, we are getting there.

Unfortunately for us, we don’t have an audio tape of the words that were spoken back in the Garden of Eden after the sin was committed.  Because of this we don’t know how the words were inflected, except for how we perceive them when we read them in the bible.  Quite often when something is written, and read by another person, it can be taken in the wrong way because of the way we pronounce the words to ourselves.  It happens all the time in emails, texts, and so forth, so that quite often people have to ask what the other person meant by what they said.  In some cases, this is also true in the bible.

The perfect example is when Jesus told the thief that “truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise”.  Depending on how that is read, and the punctuation used, two different perspectives can be perceived.  Now if we had an audio tape it would be much easier, but since we don’t we must use reason, and make sure the sentence fits with the situation, and is in accord with the other teachings in the bible.  By doing so, in this instance of Jesus words to the thief, we know that a comma must go after the word “today” in the scripture regarding when the thief would be in paradise.  

The account of Adam & Eves fall is another place where this type of confusion can occur.  It is a common belief that Adam blames God, when asked by Jehovah, if he had eaten from the tree. Adams explanation to God goes like this: (Ge 3:12) “. . .And the man went on to say: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me [fruit] from the tree and so I ate.”. . .”  Witnesses are taught that the word “you” is inflected with blame, and therefore Adam is stating that it was Gods fault that he sinned because he gave Adam the woman. To be honest, it is easy to read it that way once it is brought to our attention.

Unfortunately, because the account is now looked at from the perspective of Adam placing blame on God, no love or empathy is used to reason further on the account, or even considered. Since Adam was created in Gods image, with love and empathy, we should use this information and apply it to the account?  So let's try something different, and reason on a few things, to see if Adam truly was placing blame on Jehovah.

First of all, Jehovah really did give Eve to be with Adam.  Taken from his rib, and made to be a compliment of him, Eve was Adams perfect soul mate if there ever was such a thing.  Perfect love!  Bound together for eternity, Adam, no doubt, thought that Eve was Gods greatest creation ever(Ge 2:22-23) .    Secondly, Eve DID give Adam the fruit, and he did eat the fruit, just as he said he did.  So when Adam tells God “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me [fruit] from the tree and so I ate.”. . .” it was essentially true in every respect.  When we read the statement without inferring any type of blame or intent, it can be looked at purely as a matter of fact. If we read the whole account, from the creation of Eve onward, Adam tells Jehovah EXACTLY what happened as it has also been told to us from the scriptures.  It was the truth.  Although Adam hid from God because of his shame, once he was asked what happened he simply told the honest truth.

When we consider what must have been going through Adams mind when Eve gave him the fruit, we have to ask ourselves why did he do it?  We forget the fact that even though sin was already committed by Eve when she ate the fruit, there was still a period of time before Adam ate, that he still had that perfect love for Eve, in that he had not been influenced by sin yet.  Was it merely selfishness that caused him to make the worst decision he would ever make, or was their something more to this account that we don’t see because we have been viewing the whole account from the perspective that he blamed God for his actions, and therefore we only see it as a selfish motive?  When we look at from such a narrow perspective we are blinded to the greatest gift to man, that of love.

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Our Greatest Attribute

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So take a moment before going any further, and try to keep in mind that of all the characteristics of God, the greatest is love, and that when he created Adam & Eve in his image, that would also mean that their greatest attribute would also be love.

Consider the scripture at Gen 3:12 again, only this time instead of inflecting the word “you” which implies blame, put more inflection on the words “to be with me” which implies a whole different perspective of something much greater. (Ge 3:12) “. . .And the man went on to say: “The woman whom you gave… to be with me…. she gave me [fruit] from the tree and so I ate.”. . .”   When you change the way the words are pronounced, and where the inflection occurs, you can begin to understand what Adam probably felt after Eve handed him the fruit to eat.
 
The woman whom Adam loved with all his heart, that was going to be with him as they filled the earth and subdued it, that was supposed be at his side for all time,  was now going to die.  We can only imagine the intense love they had for one another, and the incredible bond that they shared. Now consider the intense sorrow Adam must have felt knowing his wife, and eternal companion, would not be at his side for all eternity.  Remember that Eve was literally a part of him.(Ge 2:22-23)
 
It can easily be surmised that Adam was now feeling the full effects of what happens when the immovable object is hit by the unstoppable force.  The collateral damage caused by the first sin was now taking effect, yet Adam was not deceived(1Ti 2:14), he knew fully well the consequences of what Eve had done, and he was now dealing with something that no other creation had EVER had to deal with, the loss of a loved one, and it was this overwhelming feeling of loss that motivated Adam to eat the fruit.  He would rather die than to live without Eve for all eternity.

How can we truly know this?  Because Adam was NOT deceived!

Consider the following reasoning. We know that true love never fails.  Love IS the perfect bond of union(Col 3:14), and Adams love for Eve was the purest love there has ever been between mates.  Although he did have a choice, his love for Eve compelled him to also partake of the trees fruit. Consider what Jesus said at John 15:13, that “No one has love greater than this, that someone should surrender his soul in behalf of his friends. . .”.   Adam knew that by eating the fruit he would be surrendering his soul, so that his eternal companion, and friend, would not die alone, and so that he would not have to live eternity without her.

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Cui Bono - Who Benefitted from the sin?

I'm sure by now you are asking that if true love never fails then why did Adam not choose God over Eve?  Great question, however before we answer that, let’s consider a few things about what each one gained from their sin, and their original intent for sinning in the first place.
 
Let’s start with the Cherub who would become Satan.  Obviously we know that he gained worldwide recognition.  He gained influence, power, control, notoriety, followers, and many other things that were the desires of his heart.  Although he also knew he would die in the end, at the time of his sin, he didn’t care because his desire was overwhelming in his heart, and his pride and hate for Gods standards were blinding him from any common sense.  In his eyes there was so much to gain from the sin, he didn't care about the consequences, and his motive was based on hate, jealousy, selfishness, covetousness, greed, etc..etc. Of the three, there is no doubt Satan gained the most.

Eve, on the other hand, was thoroughly deceived as we have already noted.  Her choice, from her perspective, was going to gain her the knowledge of good and bad, and to be like God.  Although the choice was selfish, it was not based on hate, but on deception from Satan, and the fleshly desire to be more than she was.  The initial desire didn't originate within her, but was a consequence of Satans lie, he being the source of the notion that she would still live after eating the fruit. Eve did not think she was going to die, and was in complete denial of the truth she knew from God.  Had she perceived that she would die, it is quite likely she would not have eaten it.  However, in her eyes there was obviously something to gain by eating the fruit.
 
So what did Adam have to gain, or benefit?  He wasn’t seeking power, or fame, or anything more than he already was.  He was content. He was also not deceived as Eve had been  He knew that if he ate the fruit he was going to die.  Bottom line, his only gain from sinning, if you can even call it a gain, was that he wouldn’t have to live without Eve for all eternity.  That he wouldn't have to live his life without the most precious thing that he loved with all his heart. Was his decision based on selfishness, as Satans and Eves were?  To a certain extent yes, for he didn’t want to live without his wife, and he put her before Jehovah.  The decision however was motivated by the love he had for his wife.  We can see how powerful that love was in that he chose death over life, even though he stood nothing to gain.
 
That is exactly what sin does.  It requires sacrifice.  Adam had to sacrifice his wife, or his life.  Neither choice was appealing, however the great love that he held for his wife cast the vote, and he apparently felt that he would rather die with her, than to live without her.  When we look at the next scripture it gives us a clear explanation of why Adam made the choice he did.  This scripture is found right after the creation of Eve, it states:

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 “. . .That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he must stick to his wife and they must become one flesh. . .” Genesis 2:24

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And this is how we come to the greatest love story ever.  Two people in love, a villain, and a life changing situation that lead to their death. The very first love story NEVER told...

Adam & Eves bond was a perfect union.  Jehovah designed them to be one flesh, and for this reason Satan knew he only needed to get one of the perfect humans to sin.  Based on his knowledge of Adam & Eve, he knew that once one had sinned the other would most likely follow suit. It was in their design as a perfect husband & wife, and Satan took advantage of that knowledge, and manipulated the perfect bond of love the couple had for each other.

Many will say that Adam still had a choice to not sin.  Yes, he did.  However, according to the way he was created, the odds of him sinning grew exponentially once Eve had already done so.  Remember, Adam had NOTHING to gain by eating the fruit.  I’m not trying to defend his choice, or say that he couldn’t have said no, but there is simply no other reason he would have eaten the fruit, except for the fact that it was in his perfect nature to stick with the one that was created "to be with him". How can we truly know the power of being "one" flesh with another person, until we are perfect ourselves?

Although this perspective is much different than what is currently taught by the society, and the world in general, it really comes down to choice on how we view some of the accounts in the bible.  Because we weren’t there, we can only draw the conclusions we have based on what the bible teaches us about God, and his creation.  Because of the choices made by Adam & Eve, and the consequences of those actions that have affected every man, woman, and child born since, it is easy to quickly pronounce judgment upon them as being selfish, and as seeing Adam as one who blamed God for the sin.  Yet that perspective lacks a significantly large detail that has been overlooked, that being mankind’s greatest quality, love. Viewing the account without considering love makes it easy to place the blame, but may not give us an accurate representation of what actually happened, or why.
   
Even though this perspective is different from most, I choose to look at this story from another perspective, one with love.  I know Jehovah to be a God of love, and that 99.999% of his creation exudes that same quality, therefore I choose to give Adam & Eve the benefit of the doubt.
 
And I sincerely hope to...one day, see Adam & Eve together again.

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