There's a verse in the Bible that I see a lot of people (men and women) using to claim that all of the blame for what happened in the Garden of Eden fell on Adam and that the woman was innocent. Here's the verse I'm talking about:
1st timothy 2:14
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Women like to cite this verse and say, "See? Eve was innocent, but Adam wasn't deceived and knew exactly what he was doing when he disobeyed the Lord."
But this is a horrible subversion of this verse. To put it mildly, Adam has been catching a bad rap for centuries, if not milleniums. So, let's see what this passage is actually telling us.
If you look at the verses that come before verse 14, you can see that Paul is explaining why women have no business trying to be an authority on God's word. (Have you noticed how many apostate, female, lesbian, pro-abortion, anti-Israel pastors are emerging in these last days?) Paul was pointing out that women are more easily deceived than men are, and thus, are more susceptible to Satan's influence.
1st Timothy 2:11-14
11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13. For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
See how things change when you consider the surrounding verses? Again, Paul was saying that women are more susceptible to Satan's deception, therefore they have no business trying to present themselves as an authority on the word of God because they stand a higher chance of teaching false doctrines.
But we're not done. There are people who will still argue that 1st Timothy 2:14 is saying that Adam was completely to blame for what happened in the Garden of Eden and that Eve was completely innocent, so we've got prove that it doesn't.
First of all, notice that 1st Timothy 2:14 says that, although she was deceived, Eve was STILL transgressing:
1st Timothy 2:14
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Transgressing means sinning. Now why would it say that? If Eve would have been deceived to the point where she didn't know better, she would have been completely innocent, true. But Eve DID know better. That's why verse 14 says she was still in the transgression. God tells us that he never allows us to face temptation that we can't overcome:
1st Corinthians 10:13
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
So, Eve knew what she was doing. And just what exactly WAS she doing? We can get the answer from the way she changed God's words:
Genesis 3:2-3
2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3. 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.
Eve added the words "neither shall ye touch it." God never issued this restriction. He only said if they ATE it they would die. He never said anything about just touching it (Genesis 2:16-17). People have often wondered why Eve changed God's words to make the restriction even tougher, but it's not hard to figure out. This allowed the devil to tell her a half-lie: part truth, part lie. Satan's specialty. When Satan said back to Eve "Ye shall not surely die..." he could have then whispered under his breath "...if you only ~touch~ it," and actually been telling a half truth. Eve knew this. She was looking for an excuse to eat the forbidden fruit. Think about this. It's obvious she had heard of it (because she was telling the devil about it), and it wasn't by chance or accident that she had wandered right next to the forbidden tree before the serpent approached her.
People that try to make Eve out to be innocent always make it sound like Adam practically snatched the fruit out of Eve's hand so he could eat it too. They use the words "with her" in Genesis 3:6 to claim that he was supposedly standing right next to her, watching everything that was happening:
Genesis 3:6
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.
We're going to prove two things here: that Adam didn't want to eat the fruit (not for the purpose of becoming a god, anyway), and that he was nowhere near Eve when she ate it.
First, notice in this next verse that Eve made a VOCAL PLEA for Adam to eat the fruit:
Genesis 3:17
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;
Did you get that? Eve was ~asking~ Adam to eat the fruit. Now, keep in mind that this happened AFTER Eve had eaten it and had NOT turned into a god, as Satan had said she would. So, both Adam and Eve knew that she had been duped and that the fruit most certainly was NOT going to turn anyone into a god. Thus, there is no way Adam could have eaten the fruit for selfish reasons. He knew he wasn't going to be turned into a god. Also, he knew if he ate the fruit, he was going to be thrown out of the garden with Eve. Simply put, Adam gave up the ease and safety of the life within the garden so that Eve wouldn't die alone outside of it. In this aspect, Adam is very much a type of Christ who died for HIS bride, as well, and didn't have to. Christ didn't have to come down from glory to go through all that he went through to save his fallen bride, the Christian church, but he did. Adam, likewise, didn't have to leave the garden with Eve. He could have refused to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve very easily could have been replaced, no matter how much women may not like that. Adam had other ribs, after all, and the Bible makes it clear that God can make people out of stones and even give them a legitimate, historical lineage out of thin air:
Matthew 3:9
And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
And God has previously declared that it wasn't good for the man to be alone:
Genesis 2:18
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
So, Eve could have been replaced. Adam knew this, but he wanted Eve. There was nothing wrong with Adam's sacrificial love for Eve. That wasn't his sin. His sin was doubting God's goodness to forgive Eve, which he would have, had Adam and Eve simply gone to the Lord, told him what Eve had done and asked him to forgive her. Simply put, Adam's love for the creation was greater than his trust in the Creator.
Now, keep Adam's love for Eve in mind as you read this next part, because we're going to prove that Adam was nowhere near Eve when she ate the forbidden fruit. If Adam was really standing right next to Eve and hearing the serpent tell her what this fruit could do for her, do you think he would have believed the serpent, or do you think he would have known that he was lying to Eve? Let's review what the Bible says. You're going to see that the very verse people use to condemn Adam is the same verse that ends up vindicating him:
1st Timothy 2:14
And Adam was NOT DECEIVED, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Nope, Adam would not have believed the serpent. He would not have been deceived. He would have known the serpent was up to no good, so he would NOT have let Eve eat the fruit right in front of him. Eve was somewhere else far from him and took the fruit back to him. This is why it's so dangerous for the woman to get up in front and try to take the man's authority. Satan's going to catch her alone and tempt her with evil, which will then end up being the destruction of the man. This was what Paul was getting at, and his warning wasn't just limited to the preaching of God's word. Satan is still using the woman in many ways to destroy the man today:
Proverbs 23:27-28
27. For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28. She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
In fact just a couple verses before 1st Timothy 2:14, Paul is telling women to put some clothes on:
1st Timothy 2:9-10
9. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
10. But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
Now, some people will try to prove that Adam didn't really love Eve by claiming that he tried to deflect all of the blame onto her, but if you actually read the words of Adam's answer to God, you'll see that he simply told the truth:
Genesis 3:11-12
11. 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?
12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Tell me, what part of that answer was untrue? God did indeed give Adam the woman, the scripture itself says that Eve asked Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, and Adam did indeed eat it. Again, what part of that answer was untrue? Some people say that Adam was falsely insinuating that the woman caused him to eat the fruit in some way, but, apparently, God agreed that the woman WAS part of the reason the man ate the fruit, because look what he said to her:
Genesis 3:13
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.
In other words, he was asking her why she asked Adam to eat the forbidden fruit (and, remember, she DID ask him to eat it.) Heck, if anyone was guilty of deflecting blame, it was the woman, because she WANTED an excuse to justify eating the forbidden fruit, and then blamed it on the serpent. As we pointed out earlier, this is proven by the fact that her deception was still counted as a transgression.
Adam wasn't trying to be God; that was the woman's sin. Adam's sin was doubting God's goodness to forgive Eve, and treasuring the woman's company over God.
To put it simply: The scene in the Garden of Eden shows us that the woman is vulnerable to treasuring the lies of the devil over God, and that the man is vulnerable to treasuring the company and allure of the woman over God. This continues today. Men and women have to be on their guard against the devil in these two different respects.
