The Evil Fruit of Division

The Bible story of creation makes us aware that God gave a unique gift to humans. The gift was unity between God and man, and unity between man and woman. After the first sin was committed there was division between both God and man, and man and woman.

The taking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad resulted in the worst punishment we could imagine--we no longer trust God or each other. The forbidden apple is an evil fruit because it is division.

When the first people took the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, what happened was not that we became like God. Instead, we became divided against each other. Division leads to suspicion, to confusion, and to separation. All of these are apparent as we look at Adam and Eve's response to God's questions after they sinned.

Adam doesn't confess his sin as much as he admits he was hiding. Then, when God questions him about his sin, he called his partner “woman” instead of wife to put the blame on her. Then he indirectly blamed God who made her for him. This is the first concrete example of the division between God and man and man and woman.

The woman, for her part, blamed the serpent's trick. God's questioning-- a simple pattern of where, who, and why--gives them a chance to explain themselves. God doesn't do this for the serpent. Right after hearing the woman's explanation, God punished the serpent before he addressed the man and his wife. God began with a promise that He will allow woman and her power to bear children to be the instrument of the serpent's loss of power. The serpent also will be divided from the rest of creation. Adam and his wife do not yet know this offspring that will crush the serpent will be God made man, but only that man will be his downfall--the ultimate humiliation for the proud Satan.

That Adam and Eve knew that they were naked is significant. There is disruption of the unity of the conjugal act that marriage promises (two become one flesh which is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife) because of sin. It is no surprise when a few generations later Lamech married two women in direct rebellion against what God had commanded. Later on, we know that Moses allowed for divorce which again is a further rebellion against the first command of unity between man and woman joined by God in marriage.

Thw woman's punishment involved an increase in childbirth pain and a yearning for her husband with his domination of her a pattern that will lead to more division. Of course the pain of childbirth is obviously a form of punishment, but the worse consequence of her sin is mistrust. Adam's punishment--his difficulty in growing food from the ground--reminded him of his proper place as a creature.

Death is tied to Adam and pain to Eve. Adam's and Eve's knowledge of good and evil itself does not give them a godlike power. Both will have to labor and die.

At the end of the chapter, Adam named his wife. This indicates his dominance over her for he named all the animals as well. The gift of motherhood is not diminished however as she is mother to all the living thus having dominance over nature.

God then showed he still loves them as he covered them with a more permanent clothing of animal skins.

The banishment from paradise seems like another punishment, but it actually is a kindness because the Trinity does not want Adam and Eve to live forever in their sinful state. The banishment and more importantly the punishment of Satan led to the hope of a savior. This became fulfilled when Jesus, the second person of the Triune God, restores us through His death and resurrection.

The forgiveness of sins makes us free to live the way of truth Jesus taught. This allows marriage to once again reach the original purpose of unity and therefore is a sacrament of Christ's Church.

Marriage leads to our redemption by the selfless life we live in service to our husband or wife. The division that resulted from the Fall is defeated by the unity of Jesus and His Church.

What we regain through Jesus is what Adam and Eve lost, God is reconciled to us and marriage is a proper outpouring of a sacramental life. We have a restoration to a higher order man's relationship with God and the relationship between husband and wife.