The serpent was disgusting, his slithering form a transparent mask, his voice a whining caricature of human sound. But he was no fool. His attack would be subtle beyond words and Gabriel feared for the man and the woman.

Eve was walking near the center of the garden where the Tree of Life grew. Its leaves were a beautiful dark green, its fruit delicious beyond the imagining of it. But it was not the Tree of Life that had caught her attention. She was staring at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, her curiosity a passing thing, with no evil desire to mar her interest. It was simply not important other than the recognition that her Father had asked her not to eat from that Tree on pain of death. Not that death meant anything to her, but to displease her Father was punishment enough.

She would have walked on, her entourage of forest creatures keeping pace and providing company for this impromptu tour of her kingdom, but then she noticed the serpent coiled around the trunk of the tree.

She should not be alone. Gabriel thought. Where is her head, her man? He should protect her, together they might overcome the tempter. Divide and conquer, the oldest strategy, the surest results. No, the serpent was no fool. But God had allowed this encounter and the choice would be hers to make and later, also the man.

The serpent spoke and Eve stopped, her eyes growing wide. “You have spoken,” she said.

“It is so,” came back the reply, the unblinking eyes betraying nothing.

“Has Adam given you a name?” Eve asked with kind concern, already accepting the strangeness of this conversation as part of the wonderful creation of her Father.

“No, I need no name for I will decide my own identity.”

“This is most strange.”

A questioning look came into Eve’s eyes for a moment and the serpent decided to press his attack at once before too many questions were asked. “Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”

The question was an accusation, the accusation sweeping and deceptive, making God look unrealistic to forbid them to eat from all of the trees in the garden. The serpent was already planting doubt in the wisdom and love of the Creator, though this first attack was designed to be easily overcome.

Eve noticed the black pulp of the forbidden fruit staining the serpent’s mouth and she was immediately concerned. The serpent had entwined himself upon the lower branches of the tree and was reaching for another fruit.

He should not be there, Eve thought to herself. He should not be eating from the forbidden tree. Did he not know the will of the Father?

Concerned, she responded, “we may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death.’”

The serpent noticed the additional words Eve had spoken out of concern for what he was doing. God had not mentioned anything about touching the tree. Already one person’s disobedience was threatening the safety and peace of others. Already worry was taking root and additions to the law were being added as a further safeguard from disobedience. Lucifer was learning key strategies that he would use time and again in the temptation of this race of men. He decided to press on in the confusion of the moment with a direct approach.

“No! You will not die!” It was a direct contradiction of God’s clear command but the serpent rushed on, hoping to cover his brashness with further argument. “God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”

It was the art of deception in its purest form. He had told her the truth but not the whole truth. It was true that if she ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil she would learn of things she had never dreamt of before. But that was not the issue. The question was one of surviving the knowledge, surviving the disobedience.

He had caught her interest and the seeds of doubt grew quickly in the virgin soil. He had cast doubt not only on the clear word of God but also on God’s character.

Was God trying to keep some good thing from them? Was this fruit something that her man as King of the earth was entitled to have? Should she try it first to make sure it was all right and then give some to Adam?

The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it.

She gave some also to her husband who had come up behind her. He held the fruit in his hand, looked into her eyes and realized what she had done.

“We will be like God,” she said in response to the question in his eyes.

He hesitated only long enough for the desire to take root in his own heart and then he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked.