Both Adam and Eve fall from grace in this story, and they do it together. The poetic manner of the text simply demands that someone go first. At this point of the story, it is no longer two ancient figures in a garden. It is now supremely your personal story and mine . We are here in this penetrating dialogue with the slippery serpent while the tantalizing juicy fruit hangs before us from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Tempters never come with black hats and flashing signs of their evil designs.
Notice, it does not speak with God, only about God . Bonhoeffer says that this shows our attempt to get behind the Word of God and to pass judgment on it. We ask about tolerance to other religions and respect for other people and end up dismissing the only truth that can connect us with the living God. We are coming close, now, to defining the essence of our human defiance . Sin is not just bad morals .