3
Genesis
The snake was the most intelligent of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”
2 The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees 3 but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! 5 God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Yes, the woman listened to the snake and picked the fruit then handed it to her husband. We've all heard that so many times and it seems, IMHO, that most paste the blame squarely on her shoulders alone.
But look at the end of verse 6: "..who was with her, and he ate it."
Now, go back to Genesis 2:15-17
15 The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it. 16 The Lord God commanded the human, “Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; 17 but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!”
God initially commanded the man not to eat from the tree of knowledge. Nowhere does it say He gave the same instructions to the woman. As He created man to lead the woman He also left Adam to instruct and lead Eve.
He was to impart to her how imperative it was that they fully obey God. Adam failed at this.
Adam was the one who received the message.
Adam was to lead his wife and be a strong husband.
Adam, instead, allowed Eve to approach the tree and pick it's fruit.
At no point does my Bible say, "Adam grabbed Eve and tried to stop her", Adam told Eve no", "Adam grabbed the fruits from Eve and threw them into the river!"
Adam stood there listening to the lies the serpent told without argument.
Adam watched his wife pick the forbidden fruit and eat it.
Adam accepted Eve's offering of the same fruit and ate it himself.
Yeah, reading my new Bible is fun. . and eye opening!!
Okay, so I am very slowly reading through my new Common English Bible. Something about this writing makes the words jump off the paper! It's like I'm there with them. The writing is simple, unadorned. Very clear and easy to read. Mind you, I do enjoy books where I have to look up words on every page as that grows my vocabulary immeasurably, but this Bible grows my understanding in the same way. With this Bible, as compared with my KJV and NKJV, I find myself at work longing to be home curled up reading His word. I have felt that before with the others but not the same as this. Before it was to gain wisdom . . this is to become closer to Him. It may simply be where I am in my relationship with God right now, but I have several other versions of the Bible and don't long to curl up and read any of those.
I would highly recommend trying the Common English Bible app as well as buying a hard copy. I ordered mine from www.CommonEnglishBible.com It has references to where verses match up with the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as including, off to the side, the verses King James VIII added in. Both are extremely nice for comparison as well as authentication.
Have you tried the Common English Bible?
