WHO WAS RIGHT: GOD OR THE SNAKE?

A very intriguing story in Genesis is that of God warning Adam and Eve that when they eat the forbidden fruit they will die (Gn2:16-17), and later they eat but they do not die. What makes this story even more intriguing is that the snake convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit – Eve later convinces Adam to do so as well – by claiming that they will not die, but that their eyes will be opened and they will be like gods, knowing good and evil. Later we learn that Adam and Eve’s eyes were indeed opened (Gn3:1-7) – they suddenly realized that they were naked – and that Adam only died when he was 930 years old (Gn5:3). What does Genesis try to tell us by contradicting itself?

Genesis encourages us to think of a way that Adam and Eve may indeed have died after eating the forbidden fruit, even though they did not die physically. After a lot of research – Albert Einstein said, “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – and taking into consideration a lot of different ideas, it becomes clear that the author suggests that before eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve were aware of their reincarnations, since that would make them inmortal.