We can glean very little information about Adam and Eve from the Genesis account, and what
we do find is not at all flattering. Simply put, Eve is a fool and Adam is a coward. When presented to opportunity to confess their transgression and apologize, they blame someone else. (Though only Adam has the audacity to blame God: “The woman You put with me gave it to me.”)
Yet the totality of a person is more than their sins, and Adam and Eve are no exception. They must have had plenty of strengths to balance those particular weaknesses, seeing that they survived and raised children who went on to reproduce down to the present day.
Not the last time a couple of spoiled rich kids would find themselves impoverished and still find a way to thrive, though it is definitely the most impressive.
When we meet Adam and Eve in Cain: Son of Adam, they are not the same people who got thrown out of Eden. Almost two decades of survival in our world has given them ample opportunities to grow in virtue and skill. Subsistence-level living does not leave a lot of time for self-pity. The business of living, worshiping, and raising their three children has served to harden them towards, or at least distract them from, the trauma of their fall.
But the trauma remains, no matter how hard they try to bury it. Each has different ways of dealing with it. Eve’s garden, for example, is almost an exact replica of Eden. Now it is important to note that Eve is not trying to recreate the Eden of her youth. (She has far more sense than some modern ideologues.) Rather, she is trying to preserve the memory of things lost, and perhaps, remind herself of her failure in a healthy way.
Adam makes no such memorial. He does nothing at all. He will not speak, or even think of his fall, nor of the days before it, save what is required for worship (see the Sample Chapter Beth here).
This is hardly surprising, since unlike Eve his fall is entirely his own fault. St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:14 that “Adam was not deceived.” The traditional interpretation of this passage is that Adam did not fall for the Serpent’s lies, but ate the forbidden fruit anyway, knowing precisely what would happen if he did. His fall was, essentially, a suicide, an act of self-destruction that took all the world with him. And which of us wants to admit, even to ourselves, how keenly we feel the call of the void, how in the darkness of our heart we long to be destroyed?
Nevertheless, the day of reckoning is coming for Adam and Eve. Their children are getting older and have not stopped asking uncomfortable questions. An explanation is owed, for loves sake if nothing else. All of us who are parents of small children dread the day when we have to tell them about the reality of death. How much more those whose failure allowed Death to enter the human experience?
How might Cain, Abel, and Naomi react? Find out in Cain: Son of Adam, available from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats. And stay tuned for more on the Adam’s Family Children.
Blessed Advent.