The Womans Bible | Page 9

eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust
shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children: and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed
is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field;
19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of
it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve: because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them.
22 And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil; and now, let he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live
for ever;
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground
from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim,

and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Adam Clarke, in his commentaries, asks the question, "is this an allegory?" He finds it
beset with so many difficulties as an historical fact, that he inclines at first to regard it as
a fable, a mere symbol, of some hidden truth. His mind seems more troubled about the
serpent than any other personage in the drama. As snakes cannot walk upright, and have
never been known to speak, he thinks this beguiling creature must have been an
ourang-outang, or some species of ape. However, after expressing all his doubts, he rests
in the assumption that it must be taken literally, and that with higher knowledge of the
possibilities of all living things, many seeming improbabilities will be fully realized.
A learned professor in Yale College,[FN#3] before a large class of students, expressed
serious doubts as to the forbidden fruit being an apple, as none grew in that latitude. He
said it must have been a quince. If the serpent and the apple are to be withdrawn thus
recklessly from the tableaux, it is feared that with advancing civilization the whole drama
may fall into discredit. Scientists tells us that "the missing link" between the ape and man,
has recently been discovered., so that we can now trace back an unbroken line of
ancestors to the dawn of creation.

[FN#3] Daniel Cady Eaton, Professor of Botany.

As out of this allegory grows the doctrines of original sin, the fall of man, and woman the
author of all our woes, and the curses on the serpent, the woman, and the man; the
Darwinian theory of the gradual growth of the race from a lower to a higher type of
animal life, is more hopeful and encouraging. However, as our chief interest is in
woman's part in the drama, we are equally pleased with her attitude, whether as a myth in
an allegory, or as the heroine of an historical occurrence.
In this prolonged interview, the unprejudiced reader must be impressed with the courage,
the dignity, and the lofty ambition of the woman. The tempter evidently had a profound
knowledge of human nature, and saw at a glance the high character of the person he met
by chance in his walks in the garden. He did not try to tempt her from the path of duty by
brilliant jewels, rich dresses, worldly luxuries or pleasures, but with the promise of
knowledge, with the wisdom of the Gods.
Like Socrates or Plato, his powers of conversation and asking puzzling questions, were
no doubt marvellous, and he roused in the woman that intense thirst for knowledge, that
the simple pleasures of picking flowers and talking with Adam did not satisfy.