"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
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The serpent is just a metaphor. No snake actually came to Eve and spoke to her, but the person that did was akin to a snake in his mannerisms. Smooth and mesmerizing in his approach. Words dripping with honey for those who hear them to be drawn in. 'God' Most surely did know that Adam and Eve would not perish from eating the fruit from the tree, but as we went over before, probably put the rule and the warning in place as a test of sorts.
This shows more a collaboration effort of sorts to breathe life into the human race and that some wished to undermine the wishes of the others by pushing Adam and Eve toward knowledge of good and evil so that it could take advantage of the naive confusion that would stem from it; feed from the angst and anger and bitterness. Perhaps, in some ways, the person did take on the aspects of the snake; perhaps in their genetic make-up, they had a lizard appearance, but could shift back and forth and appear to be human.
He played to humans egotism in this hour and said that God was afraid of humanity being more like him. Far be it from the truth. It was wanted that we be spared as much as possible from the evils that have plagued other species in the past before that point. But, like the child that has been denied a piece of chocolate, Adam and Eve were easily swayed into believing something that wasn't true and thus began the disillusionment of our species.
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"And when the woman 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, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat."
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In the hour that they ate of the fruit, they became aware of their own selves. They had been given knowledge through the breaking of a trust and the breaking of a simple rule. They knew that what they had done was wrong, but could not explain why and thus were brought into an awakening of the mind that they were ill-prepared for, given the process of being inducted to it in the manner they were inducted. The fruit itself did not give knowledge one way or the other, but the act of eating the fruit opened up the mind to view things in a different fashion; and they were afraid of the consequences of what they had done. Negativity first got its hooks into humanity.
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"And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
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I believe 'God' to have been disappointed by Eve's answer. Instead of taking personal responsibility for eating the fruit regardless of the rules; she sought to instead blame the serpent; and certainly the serpent was partly to blame; but she should not have listened to him for it most certainly did ruin her and Adam's paradise.
To me, this is more a story of the snake in general and is just legend given to how the snake came to be without feet and hands; arms and legs; cut off from its lizard brethren. And The man that acted like a snake was given a similar fate to that of the serpent: He was to be without hands and feet; arms and legs; in a metaphorical sense; and was to be cut off from his brethren; those like him in Eden. At this point, one could easily presume that he followed Adam and Eve and continued to speak his poisons to them in various ways; spreading discontent through them at their lot in the rough world outside of paradise. He caused them to fight while they raised their children Cain and Abel and caused Cain to be ostracized for his personality while Abel was exalted in the eyes of his parents for his. He pushed Cain's anger and bitterness to new heights and caused him to murder his brother Abel and thus, true evil finally had a place in this world.
It was not a punishment that Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden, though; but to save them and every future inhabitant of the world. If they had eaten from the tree of life in that moment, then evil would have been eternal on Earth and there would not have been an answer for it. All the negativity and insecurity released into the world by the consumption of the apple would have had prominence in the world and would have soon and easily established its dominance with immortality.
With the long road approach, there was time and ways to push goodness to the progeny of Adam and Eve and to reduce the evils to nothing.
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