* * *
Eve stared at the tree. She dithered. And then a silver-tongued serpent standing on its hind legs urged her to pluck the forbidden fruit.
(What a fun story!)
I know God said you’d die if you ate that fruit. But I’ve been around here a long, long time. I’ve seen and heard things. And I’m telling you: You won’t die. The truth is: You will be like God.
Ah, yes, there it is—our moral quandary highlighted in one telling scene beneath a tree. What is right and what is wrong? Who knows best what we should do? Whose voice do we heed? Our own or another’s? Whom can we trust?
Eve trusted the serpent. She made a choice. She defied God and, by extension, anyone who would ever tell her what she could and could not do. She took the forbidden fruit and offered it to Adam. And just like that, “their eyes were opened.” They saw themselves and the world as never before. It’s what makes us human. The human animal.
This is a myth. But, then, truth is often shrouded in fiction.
Many see this mythic tale as a tragedy. “The Fall.” They consider humankind permanently damaged by this first sin. Consequently, church fathers declared that every single human is doomed from birth because of Eve—the first woman, the first mother, the first sinner. According to orthodox Christianity, Eve was a bad apple who contaminated everyone else.
“Original sin.”
Eve as the first villain.
But the story doesn’t have to be read that way. I don’t read it that way. I see Eve as a hero. Eric Fromm in You Shall Be as Gods (1966) interprets this myth as depicting “the rise” of humanity. Because of Eve, humanity no longer lives in darkness, no longer stumbles along blindly. Eve was bold, brave, and courageous. Eve opened our eyes.
And that’s no small matter.
After all, “sight” is the supreme metaphor for knowledge. Oh, now I see! And “insight” is the metaphor for self-understanding—the aspiration of nearly every religion and spiritual practice. As the former English slaveholder John Newton (1725–1805) put it in “Amazing Grace”: I once was blind but now I see!
Eve gave us sight. Eve opened the door to insatiable curiosity. If we value humanity’s persistent quest for knowledge, information, and insight, Eve is a hero.
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