Who Ate the Forbidden Fruit First in Genesis
According to the biblical account in Genesis 3, Eve was the first to eat the forbidden fruit. The narrative describes the serpent approaching Eve, who then engaged in a conversation with the tempter [4, 7]. The serpent questioned God's command, suggesting that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would not lead to death but would instead make them like God, knowing good and evil [7].
Eve "saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise" [5]. Influenced by these perceived benefits and the serpent's persuasion, she took the fruit and ate it. Following this, she gave some to her husband, Adam, who was with her, and he also ate [4, 7].
The sequence of events is crucial in theological interpretations of the Fall. John Gill notes that the Lord God addressed the woman first, asking "what is this that thou hast done?" because she "was first in the transgression, and drew her husband into it" [1]. Matthew Henry similarly identifies Eve as the "ringleader in the transgression" [4]. This understanding emphasizes Eve's initial act of disobedience and her role in Adam's subsequent transgression.
Patristic writers like Augustine also highlight this order, stating that "When the first human beings—the one man Adam, and his wife Eve who came out of him—willed not to obey the commandment which they had received from God, a just and deserved punishment overtook them" [2]. While Augustine speaks of both, the Genesis narrative clearly places Eve's action first.
Rabbinic tradition, as seen in the Midrash Rabbah, elaborates on Eve's persuasion of Adam. Rabbi Simlai suggests that Eve approached Adam "persuasively," arguing that if she were to die, another Eve would not be created for him, citing Ecclesiastes 1:9, "There is nothing new under the sun" [6]. This interpretation underscores the active role Eve played in convincing Adam to partake of the fruit.
The command not to eat from the tree was initially given to Adam before Eve's creation [7]. Genesis 2:16-17 states, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" [7]. When Eve was created, she was aware of this prohibition, as evidenced by her conversation with the serpent in Genesis 3:2-3.
The consequences of eating the forbidden fruit were profound, leading to the introduction of sin and death into the world, a concept often referred to as the Fall [2, 3, 7]. The disobedience of Adam, following Eve's initial act, is frequently linked to the concept of original sin and its transmission to humanity [3]. The prophet Ezekiel later contrasts the disobedience of the "first Adam" with the obedience expected of his audience, who were to "obey by eating the apparently undesirable words of God" [8].
Sources
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 3:13: And the Lord God said unto the woman,.... Who was first in the transgression, and drew her husband into it, and upon whom he seemingly casts the blame of his eating the forbidden fruit: what is this that thou hast done? dost thou know how great an offence thou hast committed in breaking a command of mine, and how aggravated it is when thou hadst leave to eat of every other tree? what could move thee to do this? by what means hast thou been brought into it, and not only hast done it thyself, but drawn thine husband into it, to the ruin of you both, and of all your p”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 5: Augustine — Anti-Pelagian — CHAP. 35 [XXI.] -- ADAM AND EVE; OBEDIENCE MOST STRONGLY ENJOINED BY GOD ON MAN. (part 1): When the first human beings--the one man Adam, and his wife Eve who came out of him --willed not to obey the commandment which they had received from God, a just and deserved punishment overtook them. The Lord had threatened that, on the day they ate the forbidden fruit, they should surely die.[2] Now, inasmuch as they had received the permission of using for food every tree that grew in Paradise, among which God had planted the tree of life, but had been forbidd”
- Ezekiel (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Ezekiel 18 (introduction): THE PARABLE OF THE SOUR GRAPES REPROVED. (Eze. 18:1-32) fathers . . . eaten sour grapes, . . . children's teeth . . . set on edge--Their unbelieving calumnies on God's justice had become so common as to have assumed a proverbial form. The sin of Adam in eating the forbidden fruit, visited on his posterity, seems to have suggested the peculiar form; noticed also by Jeremiah (Jer 31:29); and explained in Lam 5:7, "Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities." They mean by "the children," themselves, as though t”
- Genesis (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:6: Here we see what Eve's parley with the tempter ended in. Satan, at length, gains his point, and the strong-hold is taken by his wiles. God tried the obedience of our first parents by forbidding them the tree of knowledge, and Satan does, as it were, join issue with God, and in that very thing undertakes to seduce them into a transgression; and here we find how he prevailed, God permitting it for wise and holy ends. I. We have here the inducements that moved them to transgress. The woman, being deceived by the tempter's artful management, was ringleader in the tran”
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 3:6: And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,.... She being near the tree, and perhaps just at it when the serpent first attacked her; wherefore looking more wishfully at it, she could discern nothing in the fruit of the tree which showed it to be bad, and unfit to be eaten, or why it should be forbidden for food; but, on the contrary, had a most promising aspect to be very delicious, nourishing and salutary, as any other fruit in the garden: and that it was pleasant to the eyes; of a beautiful colour, and very inviting to the taste: and a tree to be des”
- Midrash Rabbah (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit Rabbah 20:8: “And to Adam He said: Because you heeded your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree that I commanded you, saying: You shall not eat from it, the ground is cursed on your account; in suffering you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17). “And to Adam He said: Because you heeded your wife’s voice” – Rabbi Simlai said: She approached him persuasively. She said to him: ‘What do you think, that I will die and another Eve will be created for you? “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). What do you think, that I will die and you ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 36: CHAPTER VII. THE FALL. The Scriptural Account . The Scriptural account of the Fall, as given in the look of Genesis, is, That God placed Adam in “the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman”
- Ezek (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Ezek 2:8: 2:8 Ezekiel must not resemble the disobedient and rebellious people around him. The first Adam disobeyed God’s command not to eat the apparently desirable fruit of knowledge (Gen 2:17); Ezekiel was to obey by eating the apparently undesirable words of God.”