Adam and Eve

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 558.

In the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, the original human couple, parents of the human race are Adam and Eve. In the Bible, God on the sixth day of Creation created all the living creatures and, "in his own image," man both "male and female." God then blessed the couple, told them to be "fruitful and multiply," and gave them dominion over all other living things.

God gave Adam the primeval Garden of Eden to tend but, on penalty of death, commanded him not to eat of the fruit of the "tree of knowledge of good and evil." Subsequently, so that Adam would not be alone, God created other animals but finding these insufficient, put Adam to sleep, took from him a rib, and created a new companion, Eve. The two were persons of innocence until Eve yielded to the temptations of the evil serpent and Adam joined her in eating the forbidden fruit, whereupon they both recognized their nakedness and donned fig leaves as garments. Immediately, God recognized their transgression and proclaimed their punishments--for the woman, pain in childbirth and subordination to man, and, for the man, relegation to an accursed ground with which he must toil and sweat for his subsistence. Their first children were Cain and Abel. Abel, the keeper of sheep, was highly regarded by God and was killed by Cain out of envy.

Eve eventually bore 20 sets of twins, and Adam had 40,000 offspring before he died.