Page Content (OCR)
40 for precisely seven years, before "TROUBLE" entered Paradise in the form of a deceiving, cunning, crafty "serpent." We read: "And during the first week of the first Jubilee Adam and his wife had been in the garden of Eden FOR SEVEN YEARS tilling and guarding it. And we gave him work and we were teaching him to do everything which was appropriate for tilling. And he was tilling. And he was naked, but he neither knew it nor was he ashamed. And he was guarding the garden from the birds and the beasts and cattle and gathering its fruit and eating. And he used to set aside the rest for himself and his wife. And what was being guarded he set aside. "At the end of SEVEN YEARS which he completed there, SEVEN YEARS EXACTLY, in the second month, on the seventeenth day, the serpent came and drew near to the woman. And the serpent said to the woman, 'The LORD commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat from any tree which is in the garden."' And she said to him, 'The Lord said, "Eat from all of the fruit of the trees which are in the garden." But the Lord said to us, "You shall not eat from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, and you shall not touch it lest you die."' And the serpent said to the woman, 'It is not [true] that you shall surely die because the LORD knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will become opened and you will become like gods, and you will know good and evil.’ "And the woman saw the tree that it was pleasant and it was pleasing to the eye and its fruit was good to eat and she took some of it and she ate. And she first covered her shame with a fig leaf, and then she gave it to Adam and he ate and his eyes were opened and he saw that he was naked. And he took a fig leaf and sewed it and made an apron for himself. And he covered his shame" (Book of Jubilees 3:15-22). "And the LORD cursed the serpent [Satan the devil, see Revelation 12:9], and he was angry with it forever. And he was angry with the woman also because she had listened to the voice of the serpent and had eaten. And he said to her, 'I will surely multiply your grief and your birth pangs. Bear children in grief. And to your husband is your return and he will rule over you.’ And to Adam he said, 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from that tree from which I commanded you that you should not eat, the land shall be cursed because of you. Thorns and thistles shall sprout up for you. And eat your bread in the sweat of your face until you return to the earth from which you were taken because you are earth and to the earth you will return’ (vs.23-25). The book of Jubilees parallels the Scriptural account, but adds the details that this event occurred seven years after the creation of Adam and Eve. Eve, we are told, ate of the forbidden fruit which God had commanded them not to eat, and gave to her husband, and Adam ate of it 1 Za) aan also (Gen.3:6-7). The author of the book of Jubilees goes on to describe the scene when God confronted Adam and Eve with the deed they had done. What Really Happened in the Garden? What really happened in this encounter with the snake in the garden? The apostle Paul uses this example as a warning to true believers and followers of the