The Apostle Paul says, 13. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14. and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (1 Timothy 2:13-14 [RSV])
If Eve was deceived, then what about Adam? We know he was not deceived, because Paul specifically tells us Adam was not deceived. He knew what he was doing. So why did he do it? Why did Adam eat of the fruit of the tree? Was he unhappy, wanting more, and plotting to be God? Was he also thinking of taking over? Just what was his motivation? What did he think he was getting out of this?
God first spoke to Adam in Genesis 1:28, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. . . .” Some have speculated that Adam must have felt that God had lied to him. However, that argument is defeated by the passage in 1 Timothy 2:13-14 above. Adam was NOT deceived; therefore, he knew that God had told him the truth. Additionally, some speculate that Adam did not understand God because Adam had never seen death. However, it is clear that God created both Adam and Eve with the ability to understand God when He spoke to them. Genesis 2:16 clearly states that God commanded the MAN (Adam) not to eat the fruit, and warned him that eating the fruit would cause death. Obviously, Adam understood every word (including “death”) that God spoke to him right from the very beginning, and this is also validated and substantiated by the fact that Adam, again, was NOT deceived.
The Bible is silent as to who told Eve but, from her conversation with the serpent in Genesis 3:1-5, it is clear that Eve was quite aware of God's command. God has made husbands responsible to be the spiritual leaders of their families and to protect them, even if the husband must die in so doing. This is brought out by Paul in Ephesians 5:22-24 [RSV]: 22. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. 23. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. 24. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Christ was willing to die for His bride, and so should every husband today who is a child of God.
Accordingly, it was Adam's responsibility to both warn and defend his wife from eating of the forbidden fruit. He may have done the former, but he very definitely did not do the latter.
We may not know for certain, but I believe we can draw some logical conclusions as to why Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and I believe these conclusions begin with the following: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” (Genesis 2:18 [RSV]) Adam had been alone, and he knew what true aloneness and loneliness were more than anyone else who has ever lived, for only he has lived at a time when there was not another single human being on the face of the Earth. Adam and Eve had no children at this point, and Adam knew that death now awaited his wife, Eve.
Adam was totally in love with and committed to Eve. She was his life, his joy, his inspiration, his everything. He loved Eve. When Adam first looked into the eyes of Eve everything in his world changed. Anyone who has ever experienced that innocent first love or love at first sight would understand.
Let us look at this as it happened. The instant Eve ate the fruit she came under the proclamation of the law. Death means separation. Eve died, meaning that she was separated from God and Adam. Adam knew immediately that something was wrong. When he saw what had happened, he was faced with what he saw as only two painful choices: Either to follow God, and return to being alone without Eve, or to follow his beloved wife, Eve, into death. Adam chose to die with his wife, rather than face a lonely existence without her.
Adam could have yelled at Eve, accusing her, cursing her, complaining and carping about how she was going to be sorry. He could run to God, and say, “Father, the woman you gave me ate the fruit and is dead! Can you make another one?” He did none of these things because he loved Eve and he knew that what she did could not be undone. Adam had to do something; he had to make a choice. He loved his Father, and he was like his Father so he made a decision. That decision was to die with Eve. He chose to become separated from the Father, to be with his wife, and to trust that God the Father would restore their right standing with Him.
Adam had to trust that God would somehow bring them back. Genesis 2:24 [RSV] says, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Adam had already proclaimed what a man must do. He felt his place was beside his wife. Adam gave up everything for his wife, Eve. This was an act of love and sacrifice. It may have been a misplaced act of love and sacrifice, as we will see, but an act of love and sacrifice, nonetheless. It does not seem unreasonable to conclude that in many ways, Adam behaved very nobly. In fact, it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that Adam demonstrated great faith in God that He would provide a means of escape.
I see much in Adam’s actions that later would be seen in Abraham who believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead, even though God had never said He would resurrect Isaac. But because Abraham trusted in the promises God had given to him, he was able through faith to believe God would raise Isaac from the dead. When Paul tells us Adam was not deceived, Paul is telling us that Adam believed God. This also would mean that Adam believed that God loved them, and that he felt God would not leave them forever separated from Him. Yes, there would be consequences for Adam’s choice, but God would provide a way for Adam and Eve to return to their Lord and Father one day. And in this our great Lord did not disappoint. His love was and is too infinitely great to deny His wayward children a way to return to Him, if they choose to do His will. And in the midst of all their sorrow, the love of God shines through when He says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15 [RSV]). There is the hope of which Adam, I believe, had the faith that God would provide.
Adam and Eve were one flesh. This set the precedent for Jesus. If you look at the entire story of Adam and Eve, you see the story of Jesus and the church. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and from his side He made Eve. God opened up Adam’s side and took out a rib, creating his lovely bride, Eve. Adam died for his bride, trusting in his faith that God would restore them both. Jesus was separated from the Father in order to come to the Earth. He became sin for the sake of His Father’s commitment to restore the relationship with Adam and his sons. When the Roman solder pierced Jesus’ side, it caused His blood to flow out, the blood which cleansed His bride, washing it and making it pure and whole, the bride which is the church. Jesus chose to die for His bride and He went into the belly of the Earth (a type of deep sleep) for three days, trusting that God would raise Him up and restore Him and His bride to the Fathers side. We read in Romans 5:14 [RSV] that Adam was “a type of the One Who was to come.”
Adam loved Eve, and she was tempted by the serpent, who was actually Satan, the one who leads the evil spirits in their rebellion against God and His purposes, and she ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then Adam, who was with her, chose to eat of the fruit also and they sinned. When they sinned, spiritual and physical death came into the world and fellowship with God was broken. Like a rose being plucked off the vine, they were immediately disconnected from their source of life. You can almost see the shame and guilt and fear of their new nature taking over. Genesis 3:7-10 [RSV] says, 7. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10. And he said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
We have entered the realm of speculation already, but using Scripture to back up our beliefs. So with the continued support of Scripture to give credence to our beliefs, let us continue some more speculation grounded in God’s word. As we have said, it would seem that Adam felt he had only two choices, but I believe there was another choice available to Adam, one that he did not consider. I believe Adam would have saved Eve and kept sin from entering into the world if he had refused to eat of the forbidden fruit. Why? Because the word of God teaches us that it was not Eve’s transgression that allowed sin to enter the world, we are told it was Adam’s actions that allowed sin to enter into the world.
12. Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned – 13. sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14 [RSV])
21. For as by a man came death, by a Man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22 [RSV])
The same man who wrote the above verses is also the same man who wrote the verses penned to his young friend and protégé, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 2:13-14. God’s word does not contradict itself, and neither did Paul contradict himself or Moses. Moses in the Book of Genesis shows it was Eve who bit into the fruit first, and Paul agrees with Moses in his epistle to Timothy. And yet, we are never told that it was through Eve that sin entered the world. It was through Adam.
We have already pointed out some passages that show it is the responsibility of the husband and father to be the spiritual head of the household. The first primary role in the family of the man is to show loving leadership over his wife and children. Oversight of all matters in the home, both physical and spiritual, are to be his purview, his responsibility. He should take the lead in spiritual leadership in family home Bible studies and prayers. The wife is the manager of the home, but the husband is the manager of the wife. “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”(1 Timothy 5:8 [RSV]).
Here are some more passages which delineate the roles of husbands and wives:
1. Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2. when they see your reverent and chaste behavior. 3. Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing, 4. but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:1-4 [RSV])
“Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered.” (1 Peter 3:7 [RSV])
18. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
20. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
21. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. (Colossians 3:18-21 [RSV])
So just as men are to be the spiritual leaders of their homes today, so was Adam to be the spiritual leader of his home. And in the case of Eve eating the fruit, Adam missed the mark in doing his part in teaching her a better way, which is to follow the Lord.
Yes, men are to love their wives, they are to provide for their wives and they are to be willing to die for their wives, but not at the expense of God. That is why Jesus taught that we should let nothing come between ourselves and God: “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Matthew 6:33 [RSV]). He later emphasized this point by saying, 34. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on Earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36. and a man's foes will be those of his own household. 37. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; 38. and he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:34-38 [RSV])
Even though Adam failed in saving his wife and the world, all was not lost. As God was revealing the consequences of their actions, He also gave a glorious promise. God promised Adam and Eve that He would send a Redeemer (Messiah) Who would destroy Satan and restore them to a right relationship with Him (Genesis 3:15). In the meantime, they could only approach God with a blood sacrifice. This animal acted as a substitute for the penalty of sin until "the Lamb of God" Who is Jesus Christ would come and pay the full debt.
There are two Adams and there are two ways. Every human being who has ever lived, or ever will live, is either part of the first Adam, or part of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. We are naturally born as a son of Adam, and it is only through our rebirth that we can become one with the new Adam, and a sibling of Jesus Christ.
If Eve was deceived, then what about Adam? We know he was not deceived, because Paul specifically tells us Adam was not deceived. He knew what he was doing. So why did he do it? Why did Adam eat of the fruit of the tree? Was he unhappy, wanting more, and plotting to be God? Was he also thinking of taking over? Just what was his motivation? What did he think he was getting out of this?
God first spoke to Adam in Genesis 1:28, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. . . .” Some have speculated that Adam must have felt that God had lied to him. However, that argument is defeated by the passage in 1 Timothy 2:13-14 above. Adam was NOT deceived; therefore, he knew that God had told him the truth. Additionally, some speculate that Adam did not understand God because Adam had never seen death. However, it is clear that God created both Adam and Eve with the ability to understand God when He spoke to them. Genesis 2:16 clearly states that God commanded the MAN (Adam) not to eat the fruit, and warned him that eating the fruit would cause death. Obviously, Adam understood every word (including “death”) that God spoke to him right from the very beginning, and this is also validated and substantiated by the fact that Adam, again, was NOT deceived.
The Bible is silent as to who told Eve but, from her conversation with the serpent in Genesis 3:1-5, it is clear that Eve was quite aware of God's command. God has made husbands responsible to be the spiritual leaders of their families and to protect them, even if the husband must die in so doing. This is brought out by Paul in Ephesians 5:22-24 [RSV]: 22. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. 23. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. 24. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Christ was willing to die for His bride, and so should every husband today who is a child of God.
Accordingly, it was Adam's responsibility to both warn and defend his wife from eating of the forbidden fruit. He may have done the former, but he very definitely did not do the latter.
We may not know for certain, but I believe we can draw some logical conclusions as to why Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and I believe these conclusions begin with the following: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” (Genesis 2:18 [RSV]) Adam had been alone, and he knew what true aloneness and loneliness were more than anyone else who has ever lived, for only he has lived at a time when there was not another single human being on the face of the Earth. Adam and Eve had no children at this point, and Adam knew that death now awaited his wife, Eve.
Adam was totally in love with and committed to Eve. She was his life, his joy, his inspiration, his everything. He loved Eve. When Adam first looked into the eyes of Eve everything in his world changed. Anyone who has ever experienced that innocent first love or love at first sight would understand.
Let us look at this as it happened. The instant Eve ate the fruit she came under the proclamation of the law. Death means separation. Eve died, meaning that she was separated from God and Adam. Adam knew immediately that something was wrong. When he saw what had happened, he was faced with what he saw as only two painful choices: Either to follow God, and return to being alone without Eve, or to follow his beloved wife, Eve, into death. Adam chose to die with his wife, rather than face a lonely existence without her.
Adam could have yelled at Eve, accusing her, cursing her, complaining and carping about how she was going to be sorry. He could run to God, and say, “Father, the woman you gave me ate the fruit and is dead! Can you make another one?” He did none of these things because he loved Eve and he knew that what she did could not be undone. Adam had to do something; he had to make a choice. He loved his Father, and he was like his Father so he made a decision. That decision was to die with Eve. He chose to become separated from the Father, to be with his wife, and to trust that God the Father would restore their right standing with Him.
Adam had to trust that God would somehow bring them back. Genesis 2:24 [RSV] says, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Adam had already proclaimed what a man must do. He felt his place was beside his wife. Adam gave up everything for his wife, Eve. This was an act of love and sacrifice. It may have been a misplaced act of love and sacrifice, as we will see, but an act of love and sacrifice, nonetheless. It does not seem unreasonable to conclude that in many ways, Adam behaved very nobly. In fact, it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that Adam demonstrated great faith in God that He would provide a means of escape.
I see much in Adam’s actions that later would be seen in Abraham who believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead, even though God had never said He would resurrect Isaac. But because Abraham trusted in the promises God had given to him, he was able through faith to believe God would raise Isaac from the dead. When Paul tells us Adam was not deceived, Paul is telling us that Adam believed God. This also would mean that Adam believed that God loved them, and that he felt God would not leave them forever separated from Him. Yes, there would be consequences for Adam’s choice, but God would provide a way for Adam and Eve to return to their Lord and Father one day. And in this our great Lord did not disappoint. His love was and is too infinitely great to deny His wayward children a way to return to Him, if they choose to do His will. And in the midst of all their sorrow, the love of God shines through when He says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15 [RSV]). There is the hope of which Adam, I believe, had the faith that God would provide.
Adam and Eve were one flesh. This set the precedent for Jesus. If you look at the entire story of Adam and Eve, you see the story of Jesus and the church. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and from his side He made Eve. God opened up Adam’s side and took out a rib, creating his lovely bride, Eve. Adam died for his bride, trusting in his faith that God would restore them both. Jesus was separated from the Father in order to come to the Earth. He became sin for the sake of His Father’s commitment to restore the relationship with Adam and his sons. When the Roman solder pierced Jesus’ side, it caused His blood to flow out, the blood which cleansed His bride, washing it and making it pure and whole, the bride which is the church. Jesus chose to die for His bride and He went into the belly of the Earth (a type of deep sleep) for three days, trusting that God would raise Him up and restore Him and His bride to the Fathers side. We read in Romans 5:14 [RSV] that Adam was “a type of the One Who was to come.”
Adam loved Eve, and she was tempted by the serpent, who was actually Satan, the one who leads the evil spirits in their rebellion against God and His purposes, and she ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then Adam, who was with her, chose to eat of the fruit also and they sinned. When they sinned, spiritual and physical death came into the world and fellowship with God was broken. Like a rose being plucked off the vine, they were immediately disconnected from their source of life. You can almost see the shame and guilt and fear of their new nature taking over. Genesis 3:7-10 [RSV] says, 7. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10. And he said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
We have entered the realm of speculation already, but using Scripture to back up our beliefs. So with the continued support of Scripture to give credence to our beliefs, let us continue some more speculation grounded in God’s word. As we have said, it would seem that Adam felt he had only two choices, but I believe there was another choice available to Adam, one that he did not consider. I believe Adam would have saved Eve and kept sin from entering into the world if he had refused to eat of the forbidden fruit. Why? Because the word of God teaches us that it was not Eve’s transgression that allowed sin to enter the world, we are told it was Adam’s actions that allowed sin to enter into the world.
12. Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned – 13. sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14 [RSV])
21. For as by a man came death, by a Man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22 [RSV])
The same man who wrote the above verses is also the same man who wrote the verses penned to his young friend and protégé, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 2:13-14. God’s word does not contradict itself, and neither did Paul contradict himself or Moses. Moses in the Book of Genesis shows it was Eve who bit into the fruit first, and Paul agrees with Moses in his epistle to Timothy. And yet, we are never told that it was through Eve that sin entered the world. It was through Adam.
We have already pointed out some passages that show it is the responsibility of the husband and father to be the spiritual head of the household. The first primary role in the family of the man is to show loving leadership over his wife and children. Oversight of all matters in the home, both physical and spiritual, are to be his purview, his responsibility. He should take the lead in spiritual leadership in family home Bible studies and prayers. The wife is the manager of the home, but the husband is the manager of the wife. “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”(1 Timothy 5:8 [RSV]).
Here are some more passages which delineate the roles of husbands and wives:
1. Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2. when they see your reverent and chaste behavior. 3. Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing, 4. but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:1-4 [RSV])
“Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered.” (1 Peter 3:7 [RSV])
18. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
20. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
21. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. (Colossians 3:18-21 [RSV])
So just as men are to be the spiritual leaders of their homes today, so was Adam to be the spiritual leader of his home. And in the case of Eve eating the fruit, Adam missed the mark in doing his part in teaching her a better way, which is to follow the Lord.
Yes, men are to love their wives, they are to provide for their wives and they are to be willing to die for their wives, but not at the expense of God. That is why Jesus taught that we should let nothing come between ourselves and God: “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Matthew 6:33 [RSV]). He later emphasized this point by saying, 34. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on Earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36. and a man's foes will be those of his own household. 37. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; 38. and he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:34-38 [RSV])
Even though Adam failed in saving his wife and the world, all was not lost. As God was revealing the consequences of their actions, He also gave a glorious promise. God promised Adam and Eve that He would send a Redeemer (Messiah) Who would destroy Satan and restore them to a right relationship with Him (Genesis 3:15). In the meantime, they could only approach God with a blood sacrifice. This animal acted as a substitute for the penalty of sin until "the Lamb of God" Who is Jesus Christ would come and pay the full debt.
There are two Adams and there are two ways. Every human being who has ever lived, or ever will live, is either part of the first Adam, or part of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. We are naturally born as a son of Adam, and it is only through our rebirth that we can become one with the new Adam, and a sibling of Jesus Christ.
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