The serpent was the cleverest of all the animals God made. One day, the woman was in the garden and the serpent came up to her. The serpent said, “Did God really tell you that you may not eat from any tree in the garden?”
The woman said, “No, no, no – we may eat from every tree in the garden, except that one – the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil – we may not even touch it or we will die.”
The serpent said, “No! That is not true! God knows that when you eat of that tree, you will become wise like He is, knowing good and evil.”
Then the woman looked at the tree. She saw it was beautiful, and it would be good to eat, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took it, she ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked. So they sewed leaves together to cover their bodies.
Just at that time, they heard God walking in the garden. So they ran into the forest to hide. God said, “Adam, Adam! Where are you?”
Adam and the woman were in the forest, so Adam said, “I heard you and was afraid so I hid because I am naked.”
God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat from?”
Adam and the woman came out and Adam said, “This woman you gave to me – she gave me the fruit and I ate it!”
Then God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate the fruit.”
God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed! You will crawl on your belly all your days. You will eat the dust of the ground. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he (the seed of the woman) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Then God also cursed the woman, saying, “You will have terrible pain in child-bearing. Your desire will be for your husband but he will rule over you.”
Then God said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife, and eaten of the tree I told you not to eat from, the land is cursed because of you! Through painful work by the sweat of your brow you will get your food, but the land will produce thorns and thistles. Then you will die and return to the dust from which you were taken.”
At that time, the man gave a new name to the woman. He called her Eve because she was the mother of all living people. And God made clothes for them from animal skins. Then God looked at Adam and Eve and he said, “If I leave them here in the garden, they will also eat from the Tree of Life – and live forever. I must drive them out!” So that is what God did: He drove them out of the garden, and he set an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance of the garden to guard the way to the tree of life.
And that is the end of the story.