There was a serpent in the garden that tempted the woman to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, telling her that it would open her eyes and make her like God - she would not die! So the woman ate the fruit, and gave some to the man. And then they realised that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together to make aprons for themselves. When they heard God walking through the garden they hid because they were afraid. But God questioned them about how they knew that they were naked - Adam blamed Eve and Eve in turn blamed the serpent.

Punishments:

Snake:
Crawl on belly on ground
Eat dust
Enemy of humans

Woman:
Increased pain in pregnancy and childbirth

Man:
Ground cursed - have to work hard for food
Weeds and thorns will grow to make this difficult
Man will eventually die and return to the dust from which he was created

God clothed Adam and Eve then sent them out of the garden. He put a flaming sword in place to stop anyone from entering again in order to eat from the tree of life.

Themes

• Temptation - Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent and gave in. Equally, with only one rule to follow, and without formed consciences, was it inevitable that they would fail?
• Selfishness - man's wish to have his way, even though he is disobeying God.
• Punishment - this is to be expected if you don't follow the rules.
• Free will - Adam and Eve made their own free decisions to be disobedient.

NB      Do not mention an "apple": there is no "apple" mentioned in the original text - simply call it a "fruit".

Contemporary Issues

• Differing roles taken by men and women in the world?
• Advantages/disadvantages of the fall.                                     
• Temptation in the world today.
• Rules and punishments in the world - especially in school.
• Euthanasia.
• Owning up.

Revision