Daughters of Grace by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole

Chapter 1: Eve

      “Curiosity killed the cat” we warn children—and perhaps cats! But is it wrong for a grown woman to be curious? Is it OK to want to know more, to explore, to push the boundaries? Eve would probably have some advice.

     Her crime wasn’t a great one. She didn’t kill anyone, assault another person, destroy anyone’s property. All she did was to eat a piece of fruit. She broke a simple rule. And though we don’t know her motives for sure, the most likely motive is simply that she was curious. She wanted to know more—so she tried something she’d been told was off-limits.
     From that simple choice, according to the Genesis story of human origins, a whole nightmare of sin and suffering spiraled out of control. A woman we know as Eve stood in a garden, next to a forbidden tree, listening to the tempting talk of a sentient snake. She was newly-created, full of wonder and fascination about the beautiful world she’d been placed in. She and her husband Adam had been made the rulers and caretakers of this world. And God had given them only one restriction: Don’t eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
     What an interesting label for God to place on the forbidden tree! Wouldn’t a name like that just entice you to check it out? And isn’t knowledge a good thing?
      The words “good” and “evil” probably didn’t have much meaning for Eve, the first woman. There was no evil in the perfect world God had given to her and Adam. There was no evil lurking in her heart, either – just the desire to know and understand what was around her.
      The story of the first woman’s decision to disobey God—the Fall, as Christian theologians often call it—is a short scene at the beginning of the Bible. There’s not a lot of detail or elaboration; after the serpent tells Eve that the tree will make her as wise as God, Genesis 3:6 simply says:
      “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
     Some people have interpreted this story as saying that human curiosity, the desire to know and learn, is a bad thing, that God is punishing Eve and Adam for trying to know more, to become more, to change their situation. Was Eve’s sin—the first sin—really curiosity? Is the message that we should simply accept our limitations and our lack of knowledge, and not try to push past our God-imposed barriers?
     Though different cultures have different mythologies about the start of human existence and human problems, the idea of a curious woman causing problems is a common theme. The Greek myth of Pandora’s box tells the story of a beautiful woman and her partner Epimethus–a sort of Greek Adam and Eve, who lived in a paradise-like world. Pandora had a magical box, or (in some versions) a jar, which she was told never to open. Pandora’s curiosity got the better of her, and she peeked into the box. All the evils of the world flew out and got into the air, infecting humanity forever.
     Pandora’s story sounds like a mythologized version of Eve’s: curious woman does what she’s been told not to do, and all humanity suffers. Is it really so wrong to be curious, to want to learn and know more?
     The Bible constantly tells us to seek wisdom, and praises both women and men for being wise. Proverbs 23:23 advises: “Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.”
     God created us with the desire to learn, know and grow. Human beings are always searching for more knowledge, exploring and experimenting. And that’s not a bad thing. Eve’s story reminds us, though, that our curiosity needs boundaries. We can’t foresee the results of our quest for knowledge. God can, and so God places limits on what we can and should do with that knowledge.
     It wasn’t wrong for Eve to explore her beautiful garden home. It wasn’t wrong for her to pick fruit from the trees and eat it. It wasn’t even wrong for her to be curious. What was wrong was that she disobeyed God’s one clear command, stepping outside the boundaries He had set for her. Ever since then, we humans have been stepping outside those boundaries, and paying the price.
     I think of another woman, thousands of years after Eve. Her name was Marie Curie, and she was one of the first great woman scientists of the modern era. She discovered radiation. From her experiments in her Paris lab, discoveries have come that have changed human history. How many people have been saved from an early death by radiation treatments for cancer? And how many people have been killed by atomic bombs?
     Can we blame Marie Curie for nuclear weapons? Of course not. She couldn’t foresee all the results of her discoveries. She was driven by the urge to know and explore—just as Eve was when she went to look at the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. But scientists who develop bombs are responsible for stepping outside God’s divine boundaries, which tell us to love our neighbor and to preserve life.
     Can we blame Eve for all the troubles humanity has suffered? Perhaps rather than blaming a single woman for a single choice, we need to see Eve as a symbol of the curiosity we all experience. We all want to know more, to try new things, to go new places and push our boundaries. And that’s not wrong! Without that kind of ambition and curiosity, no new discoveries would ever be made, nobody would solve problems or take up positions of leadership. What the world needs—what the church needs, what your community needs—is a curious woman who wants to discover new ways to do things, new solutions to problems.
     But what God asks of curious women—and men!—is that their desire to lean and grow and know be guided by the boundaries He has set. Most important among those boundaries are the two Great Commandments Jesus gave:
      “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. . . . Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).
     Keep those commandments as your guidelines to mark the boundaries—and set off on your own voyage of exploration and discovery with God’s blessing.

Thanks for an interesting read. Yes, Eve's only sin was disregarding God's request. She was driven by her desires to learn the new world around her.