Was The Original Sin A Sexual One?

“The Serpent Tempts Eve”
An Original Drawing By Helena Lehman

NOTE: This article was derived from the book:
“The Language of God in History”
Copyright © 2008-2009 by Helena Lehman
of the Pillar of Enoch Ministry
http://pillar-of-enoch.com
NOTE: This Article was Revised and Updated on June 7th, 2013 

Among the apocryphal literature and Jewish Midrash that have survived to modern times, there are a few Judeo-Christian writings that suggest that Eve did not eat a literal fruit when she sinned, but transgressed against God and Adam by engaging in forbidden sexual encounters with the “Serpent” guise of the fallen angel Azazel or Satan in the Garden of Eden. As a result, there is a growing body of people who believe that Eve sinned by having unauthorized sex with the Serpent. Even more oddly, some people believe that this serpent was a reptilian humanoid that either was Azazel’s true form, or that this reptilian was possessed by the spirit of the fallen angel Azazel, also known as Lucifer or the Devil. Finally, some people think that this reptilian being was the biological father of Eve’s firstborn son Cain. Therefore, by this warped hypothesis, Eve became the first human woman to sleep with a fallen angel and also the first to be transformed into an evil demoness or siren that is known today by the name of Lilith.

By this reasoning, Eve’s son Cain would not have been fully human but a hybrid Nephilim monster that hated mankind as much as his father the Devil! In this way, Eve supposedly gave birth to the literal “seed of the Serpent” mentioned in Genesis 3:15 - the one that God promised would eventually be defeated by the Seed of the “Woman” or Holy Spirit, whose “Seed” is Yahshua. However, though a Nephilim seed of the Serpent was eventually born by a human woman, it was not by an innocent and sweet maiden named Eve. Instead, as is shown in Chapter Five of “The Language of God in History,” the first woman to literally sleep with Satan was most likely a brazen, fallen temptress named Naamah, the gorgeous but evil daughter of Lamech the Cainite!

Now, before we begin destroying the erroneous premise that Satan fathered Cain via Eve, let me make it clear that, though allegorical meanings are frequently implied in Scripture, their literal meaning must also be taken into consideration and understood so that any allegorical messages hidden there are not misconstrued. The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden is one such case, and since Genesis literally forms the foundation of the Judeo-Christian faith, we must be extra careful not to read anything into it that is not meant!

Secondly, though the Garden of Eden was a real garden that was filled with literal fruit-bearing trees, they have an allegorical meaning that is defined by Scripture. The allegorical meanings are therefore not simply to be interpreted in any way by our imaginations. For example, the Tree of Life was a literal tree that also has a scriptural connection to Yahshua as our spiritual sustenance and the Giver of everlasting life. This is also conveyed by the rite of Communion, where Yahshua is pictured as the Bread of Life, the True Vine, the New Wine, and the Living Water. The Tree of Life is also a symbol of the Cross of Christ, whereby a dead man hung on a dead tree secured the promise of everlasting life for all living things and became the source of new life and redemption for all Creation! Therefore, the Tree of Life ideally represents one’s deep and abiding love for Yahweh God, His Son and His Spirit as well as one’s obedience to God.

Thirdly, like the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a literal tree that bore fruit that was pleasing to the eye. But just as the Tree of Life signified one’s love for and obedience to God, the Tree of Knowledge signified the rebellion against God epitomized in the person of Satan, who spiritually twisted and then physically possessed a once wise and beautiful Serpent in order to deceive Eve. Therefore, the Tree of Knowledge could not offer light or wisdom but only darkness, error and death through the act of rebellion against God.

Now, scholars that argue that Eve became Lilith and slept with the Devil argue that the “fruit” in the Garden of Eden was supposed to be an allegorical reference to sexual acts, and the “trees” allegorically represented people. But if this is the true allegorical meaning, then when Eve said she could eat the fruit from almost any tree in the Garden of Eden, she was indicating that she could have sex with anyone she wanted! But could God truly have meant this? Since one of the Ten Commandments is “do not commit adultery,” it is logical to assume that God meant no such thing! Let’s read the passages in question here:

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food… and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked…’” - Genesis 3:1-7 (NKJ)

Now, if these passages are interpreted the way proponents of the Eve as Lilith hypothesis maintain, they would be suggesting that Eve could promiscuously have sex with anyone she wanted to have it with except the crafty Serpent, who was represented by the Tree of Knowledge! Furthermore, since the Tree of Life in the Garden allegorically represented Christ, and Eve could eat from that tree, then this passage would be saying that Eve could have sex with Yahshua too, and this is not only heretical, but ludicrous!

In addition, since Adam ate from the same fruit as Eve and that fruit was supposedly the act of sex, this line of reasoning can only lead to one totally absurd conclusion: that Adam also had sex with the Serpent when he ate the forbidden fruit! Unfortunately, this conclusion is so far-fetched that it doesn’t even bear consideration - especially since it can be rationally concluded and scripturally proven that Adam was desperately in love with Eve, was originally sinless and like Yahshua in character, and was not deceived like Eve. Furthermore, thinking that the Original Sin was sexual in nature is patently heretical, since it attempts to discredit the idea that any transgression against God is sinful.

The idea that Eve sinned sexually with the fallen angel Azazel in the guise of a Serpent and had Cain by him is not only reprehensible, but seems illogical when examined rationally. First of all, Adam and Eve were perfectly innocent before they fell into sin. As a result, neither Eve nor Adam struggled with feelings of lust. Furthermore, if Eve had sinned in such a way toward Adam, his righteous anger toward her would have been reason enough for him to reject her! This also makes no sense since it is likely that Adam only ate the fruit Eve ate because he could not bear to be separated from her for eternity. This could not have been the case, however, if Adam was consumed by anger over Eve’s betrayal.

Remember that the Apostle Paul declared that Adam was not deceived, but only Eve (1 Timothy 2:14). This means that - before biting the forbidden fruit - Adam unquestionably knew that Azazel had lied to Eve, but he loved Eve too much to spend eternity without her! So Adam ate the fruit out of a desire not to lose Eve. Indeed, Adam loved Eve so much that he was completely willing to suffer and die for her, and hence it was the first Adam who set the pattern for the Messiah who was to come and reverse Adam’s folly! This is why Yahshua was called the “Second Man” and the “Last Adam” by the Apostle Paul:

“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.” - 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 (NKJ)

This Scripture teaches us that, though Adam’s love for Eve caused him to sin against God and bring death and despair into the world, Yahshua’s love for us caused Him to glorify God the Father, obey Him, and bring abundant life and hope into the world:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” - John 10:10 (NKJ)

In the preceding Scripture, Azazel or Lucifer is the thief who brought us the agony of death through his desire to kill us all, while Yahshua is the life-giver who gives life so abundantly when we love Him that it springs up into resurrection and everlasting life:

“Jesus (Yahshua) answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’” - John 4:14 (NKJ)

Besides showing us how Christ came to undo the damage that Adam had done by loving Eve more than he loved God the Father or His preincarnate Son and Spirit, Scripture makes it perfectly clear that Adam was the biological father of Cain:

“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the LORD (Yahweh).’” - Genesis 4:1 (NKJ)

Thus, the Bible confirms that Cain was “a man,” not a Nephilim or reptilian, and Adam was Cain’s true father. However, many cite the fact that Cain behaved differently than Adam did by killing Abel as proof that Azazel fathered Cain - thus turning Cain into a Nephilim! However, they are too blind to see that Adam brought death to all mankind through his foolishness. Nonetheless, just as Adam was manipulated by Satan’s cunning when he chose to follow Eve into rebellion rather than lose her, Cain’s jealousy allowed Satan to manipulate him into killing Abel. However, to be fair to Adam, we need to remember that Eve literally shared Adam’s flesh, bone and spirit. Therefore, due to Azazel’s overwhelming hatred of Adam and Eve and all their future children, no other human couple has even known the perfect love and intimacy that this first married couple only had a brief chance to share.

In reality, the suggestion that Eve could so easily be tempted into sinning against Adam completely defies the nature of how perfectly matched Adam and Eve were. You see, Eve was Adam’s perfect soul mate. As soul mates, their bond of intimacy and love was stronger than anything we can possibly imagine in our fallen condition. In fact, anyone who professes to have a soul mate could not know what this truly means unless they were Adam or Eve, who were sinless in the beginning and likewise shared the radiant Shekinah Glory of God. Indeed, because Eve was formed from Adam’s rib, they even shared almost identical DNA!

Though some might argue that Eve did not have the baptism of the Spirit to give her the ability to resist temptation, there is good reason to believe that Adam and Eve were both indwelled by God’s Spirit before they fell. However, their initial covering with the Spirit of God which clothed them with the Shekinah Glory or Light of God in the Garden of Eden was conditional on their good behavior. They needed to remain obedient to God to keep that Spirit covering of light and truth to do the good works that God ordained for them to do. In contrast, humanity’s New Covenant with Christ offers unconditional salvation and communion with God and an irrevocable baptism with the Holy Spirit to anyone who loves and accepts Christ, asks for His mercy and forgiveness, and sincerely asks and wants to become like Him.

Adam and Eve’s possession of the Holy Spirit before their fall into sin is inferred because the first human couple were unaware of their nakedness before they sinned, but clearly could see that they were naked after they sinned. Now, many argue that this was a sign that Eve’s disobedience gave mankind intelligence and the ability to reason. However, if Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, they would already have had God’s sentience, wisdom and Spirit! As a result, there was nothing good that they did not already possess. They knew God’s total goodness and perfection and shared in it because they were filled with His Spirit and clothed with His Shekinah at the moment that they were created! They did not need to earn the right to share in God’s Glory or dominion over all Creation as we do, but they nonetheless could lose it as a consequence of disobedience to God.

Sadly, when Adam and Eve sinned by being disobedient, later events in the Book of Genesis make it clear that they and all their descendents lost the perfect knowledge and discernment that God had given them through His Spirit. At the moment Adam and Eve fell, they lost the Shekinah that had clothed them with beautiful, radiant light. As a result, they quickly discovered the unpleasant emotions associated with nakedness, shame, and guilt. Indeed, Eve would have seen Adam’s shock at her nakedness as she offered him the fruit, and she would have soon known that what Satan had given her was not the truth or the uplifting and empowering knowledge of godhood, but a terrible lie. Eve thus gained the horrible knowledge of sin and its destructive spiritual, emotional, and physical consequences.

How sad it is that so many of Eve’s progeny still seek the godhood that she could never achieve without Yah’s miraculous intervention. Yet, therein lies the reason why the Two House Church of Judah and Ephraim are to marry Yahshua as His Bride! Through Christ, all born-again believers shall finally gain Eve’s desire to be like God - but through obedience rather than rebellion!

Based on these reasons, it is highly likely that Eve actually did eat the fruit of a real tree when she sinned, just as the Bible states, and no allegorical meaning was intended. Though Eve may have been mesmerized by the beauty of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and by the persuasiveness of the Serpent’s speech, her overwhelming love for Adam and her emotional connection to him would have been strong enough to keep her from entering into any sexual sin with someone else - angelic or not.

Nonetheless, Satan was extremely cunning and knew exactly how to cajole Eve into sin. First, from the biblical narrative, it is apparent that the Serpent approached Eve when Adam was not nearby. There is, however, no suggestion that Adam and Eve were angry at each other, and this was highly unlikely anyway because they were so perfectly matched and totally sinless at the time. So, while Eve worked in the garden that God had given the first human couple to tend, a clever Serpent approached Eve that she never had reason to fear before. This Serpent, who knew how to communicate with Eve (possibly on a telepathic level), was no doubt possessed by Azazel or Satan. Hidden in this guise, Azazel began to fill Eve’s mind with enormous doubt and suspicion against her heavenly Father, and made it clear that the only way she would be able to satisfy her curiosity and find out if God had lied to her would be to disobey God.

Note that the Serpent did not beguile Eve with promises of sensual pleasure as would be expected if he was attempting to have sex with her. Instead, Azazel used the Serpent to tempt Eve by fomenting a greedy desire within her for knowledge and godhood:

“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” - Gen. 3:4-5 (NKJ)

It was therefore not sexual sin, but Eve’s pride and greed for greatness that caused her to sin, and to thereby lose her Shekinah Glory covering. Incidentally, pride and greed are also what caused Lucifer or Azazel to sin against Yahweh, so he was merely reutilizing the same arguments with Eve that he had used to rationalize his own decision to rebel against God in the first place!

When Adam saw the terrible result of Eve’s folly through her nakedness, he realized that Eve was now mortal and sinful, and because light and darkness cannot dwell together, they would be separated forever unless he chose to follow her into sin. Adam also knew that the moment he took a bite of that fruit, he would suffer the same fate as Eve, and would lose the Shekinah that had clothed him and Eve with light. But he chose to do it anyway out of love for Eve. Thus, they both lost the Holy Spirit and the Shekinah that covered them at the moment they sinned, and they suddenly knew the pain of evil emotions like guilt, shame, fear, loss, and blame for the first time - not to mention the physical pain that would come when they were expelled from the Garden.

After her fall from grace, Eve likely no longer felt kindly toward the Serpent, but extreme loathing. Perhaps she even felt hatred toward another living thing for the first time in her life. Indeed, Adam and Eve would have known soon enough that Azazel was the real culprit behind the Serpent’s cunning, and they both likely communicated their enormous anger toward the Serpent for allowing Azazel to deceive them when they sinfully passed their own blame onto him for their fall.

For the preceding reasons, it is likely that Eve was smitten by the beguiling Serpent’s overwhelming charm, scintillating erudition, and mesmerizing speech to take a bite of a real fruit she should not have eaten, and then was subsequently ashamed and repentant. After all, Eve would have known immediately after losing her Shekinah Glory covering that the Serpent had lied to her, and this would have become even more apparent when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and were forced to toil and labor for their food in a suddenly hostile environment.

Nonetheless, because they were totally cut off from God’s guidance after being cast out of Eden, Adam and Eve continued to sin and - whether or not they desired it - they were both eventually worshipped as deities - as will be shown later in this book. As a result, the Serpent’s prediction that Eve would be like God when she discovered evil proved true - but only in the most twisted and basest sense. As the first father and mother of all the living, Adam and Eve were unique among human beings, and even though it was sinful to worship them or turn them into idols, they were eventually seen as deities whether they liked it or not.

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Note: With the exception of the Bible verses, the written material in this article is copyrighted by Helena Lehman of the Pillar of Enoch Ministry through the Copyright Office of the United States of America. Therefore this article may not be used in whole or in part in any paid commercial, digital, electronic, or printed publication without permission from the author. 

All the Scriptures used in this excerpt were taken from the PC Study Bible: New King James Version copyrighted by Thomas Nelson Publishers in the USA, 1982