I was at work, doing work, when I suddenly realized that the story of the fall really does have some importance, outside of the religions that teach it. The story of the fall is the story of Eve and Adam dining on the fruit of the tree of knowledge, or wisdom. I’d like to discuss here what I have found to be the true significance of this story.
First, there are a few major items, or things, that need to be discussed in any discussion of this story. The following is a list of such things, in no real particular order. We have the snake, we have the apple1, we have the tree, and we have Adam and Eve.
The easiest to discuss are Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are man and woman, or men and women in general. If one is a man, one is Adam, and if one is a woman, then one is Eve. Of course, as with any assumptions based upon an individuals gender, that does not mean that a man is necessarily Adam, or a woman necessarily Eve, unless you are one who does believe that men are always men, and women are always women. I personally believe that we all have parts of each within us, and am personally a somewhat submissive person, a more female, or ‘Eve’ trait, one might argue (as opposed to the dominating personality, most commonly attributed to males, or ‘Adams’). But, the generic assumption of Adam is man and Eve is woman is enough for this story.
The second thing we have is the snake. While it’s true that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, the snake in this story is clearly Adam’s penis. Likewise, the apple is Adam’s ‘Adam’s apple’, or more generally, his throat. For the moment, we’ll leave the tree alone, until we deal with the snake and apple in more detail.
The story basically states that Eve is tricked, or more properly, seduced by the snake into dining upon the apple. She, Eve, then gets Adam to dine upon the apple as well. After this, they are ashamed of their bodies, cover themselves, and are evicted from the Garden of Eden by God, for they have dined on the tree of knowledge, or life, or what-have-you. Put into the terms I state above, we can imagine that what follows is what really occurred.
Adam’s penis was a thing of mystery, or interest to Eve. Eve, being a more sensitive person, and knowing that Adam was a more physical person, decided to try to please Adam physically, having only relied upon conversation beforehand. This is clearly evident from the images of Adam and Eve before the fall, when they are walking the land. As everyone knows, when you and a member of the opposite sex (or same sex, if you walk that way) walk alone, you’re typically talking to each other or basking within the presence of each other. The same is true for Adam and Eve. However, Eve decided she would try to please Adam physically.
As most animals rub up against each other, or paw each other, Eve attempted to please Adam this way. Many animals also bare their necks, allowing another to ‘bite’ their necks. Eve attempted this as well. We might assume that Eve had never really looked at herself when she was talking, for one would assume that she would be looking at Adam, and vice versa. So, it may be that she saw Adam’s apple, or lump in Adam’s throat, moving when he spoke. She went for this, in order to stop Adam from talking (perhaps he had attempted to talk to Eve when she had done this before). Whichever way she came upon his neck, we can safely assume that she did, and that she ended up ‘dining’, or kissing/sucking upon it. Some may argue that Adam’s apple was closer to the snake, but I’m not too sure I’m willing to accept that theory at this point.
Finally, when two people are pawing each other, or even if one person is pawing upon another, you have the chance for things to escalate to intercourse, or sex. This would naturally leave some interesting feelings in both Adam and Eve the next day, and possibly, in nine months or so, create quite an interesting experience.
This, then, is the tree – all of what is contained in the last paragraph. We have not only the tree of life, as in the birth to death cycles, but also the tree in that everything is connected. Before, Adam and Eve had no real sense of togetherness. They may have had a friendship, but not a lover’s kind of friendship. This latter kind of friendship is such that you hurt when they do, and are happy when they are happy. They lose the ability to live carefree, and must become ‘civilized’ (the putting on of clothes) in order to deal with the responsibilities that they find that they have.
The tree is also the tree of the past. This one moment defines who they really are – they are no longer simply animals that ‘allow’ the days to turn into each other (or pass them by), but instead must confront each day as a kind of new day, in that they must again, they realize, seek out food, for they must survive, or the other will be alone.
However, we are left with a couple of questions, two of which follow. Was it for the best that they did what they did? Did they lose their immortality, or did they instead gain immortality?
For the last, I suppose they did become immortal. Only God could create before, and now they learned how, albeit at a price to their minds and bodies. Yet, by creating, they live through their creations, both mentally (although at a decreasing rate) and physically (although, again, as a decreasing rate). Perhaps it would be better without the striving that they have brought about, but could they really have done any different?
Notes:
1. Gavin Schmitt, who knows more about the Bible than anyone I know at this time, told me that it may not have been an apple that they dined upon, but rather that a generic ‘fruit’ was what they ate. Even if this were true, I think what I have stated here is nonetheless valid. In the first place, eating a fruit can be extremely sensual, or erotic. Since this is the forbidden fruit, we can assume, safely I think, that Eve bit into it timidly. There are few things more dangerous to a man than spying a woman being timid. Secondly, if the fruit was an orange, or peach, or similar fruit, these both can make quite a sticky mess. Thirdly, as Steve Miller alludes to, peaches can symbolize a woman’s breasts, and at least one movie alludes to a woman’s vagina as a peach. Oranges can similarly allude to breasts or the vagina, although using ‘peaches’ is more common. Either way, if you prefer the fruit to be peaches or oranges, then we can switch this around to Eve tempting Adam with her breasts, and Adam obviously falling prey.2
2. Interestingly, if we assume that Eve’s breasts are the fruit then Freudians may be hard pressed for why man really centers on a woman’s breasts. After all, Adam would never had taken the milk from his mother’s breasts since Adam had no real mother. Of course, that is assuming that the God of the Bible does not have both male and female genitalia.
Created: November 16th – 17th 2004
Modified: January 2nd 2005
Notes: ‘Penis’ is used twice in this article, while ‘sex’, in the sense of intercourse, is used once. These are the only reasons one could argue this article is inappropriate, and these are hardly good reasons at all.
