The Curse Enters
Of all the intelligent creatures, the snake was the most clever of them all. He could have taken the liver out of an ant. He came to Eva and said to her, “Now Eva, is it true you can’t eat of all the fruits from the trees in this garden?”
“Oh no,” said Eva, “Eat the fruit of all the trees in this field, is what God told to us. But the fruit of that tree of knowledge of the good and the bad, this one, this one we cannot eat or touch it, God said, or then the day that you eat from it you will die.”
“No,” said the snake, “You won’t die. God knows that if and when you eat it, you all will be the same as the Prince of Creation. You will know the good and the bad.”
Then Eva saw the fruit of this tree. It was good. It made her want it, and she wanted to be intelligent too. She took the fruit and ate it. Her husband too, was given fruit by her, and he ate it also.
Then, when they were done eating it, they felt exposed, in their souls. They looked at each other and saw their bodies were naked. And they knew shame. They took tree leaves and made to cover their bodies.
Later that day, the Prince of Creation was walking through the field. He was calling, “Adam, Adam! Where are you?” “Here we are!” said Adam. “We’re hiding because we’re scared, and ashamed, and naked.”
“What?” said the Prince of Creation. “What made you know that your bodies are naked? Did you both eat the fruit of the forbidden tree?”
“No!” said Adam. “The woman, given to me by you, ate the fruit, and she gave it to me to eat, so I ate.”
“How about it, Eva? What is this thing you have done?” said the Prince of Creation.
“It was the snake! He tricked me,” she said.
With that, the Prince spoke to the snake, cursing it, saying, “You will crawl on your chest, snake. Dust will be your food. Your children and the children of the woman will be enemies. The child of the woman will stomp your head, and your children will bite the heel of the woman’s child.”
Then, the Prince turned to Eva. “You will give birth to suffering and difficulty in order to have children. You will desire your husband and want to control him. But he will rule over you.”
Then, God cursed Adam, saying, “This whole earth is cursed now because of you, Adam. It will grow thorns. You will sweat to find something to eat, and you will work hard until you die and return to the ground. You were made from the ground and you will become ground again.”
But the Prince did not leave there, he saw them, still naked. He killed an animal, took its skin and the Prince of Creation clothed them.
Now with this, the Prince also said, “Here are these humans, but like one of us now in that they now know the good and the bad. I must throw them out. If not, they will continue to eat from the tree that enlivens them and they will live like this forever.”
Adam and Eva (Earth and Life) were then thrown out by the Prince of Creation and made to leave the beautiful rice field there. The Prince also put something to guard the way back into the beautiful field, so that no human could return.
That is the story, taken from the holy writings, of how the curse came in, and why we all die.
Baker Storycraft 