I was reading the incredibly fascinating posts on the "Something I heard from our Lord" topic, and noticed something that piqued my curiousity. The JWs always say that Eve wasn't really guilty of wrongdoing, but rather Adam. And Adam was guilty because he had been told by God, and he knew eating from the tree was wrong. It makes sense (if you believe in the Bible, that is), because Adam should have known better. God warned him of what was wrong, and yet Adam still chose to do it.
It's an interesting story which, if nothing else, demonstrates that while the ancient men who repeated it may not have enjoyed the benefit of the technological and science knowledge we have, they certainly DID understand human dynamics, including the desire of men to control one another (by hook or crook). It's part of our evolutionary history: much like chickens who instinctively establish a pecking order, or primates who vie for alpha-male status to show their dominance, it's an intrinsic property of men. Religions are just playing a different version of the same old game....
Eating of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad endows humanity with a moral conscience, an inner sense of morality: the story only makes sense if the fruit is thought of in that manner, since God was basically saying, "Follow MY rules: you're not capable or permitted to make up your own rules".
Remember that it's only AFTER they ate of the fruit that they'd realized they had done something wrong by disobeying God, and tried to hide from God, to cover their "nakedness" (meaning they realized they'd bitten off more than they could chew, having to now do God's work of establishing moral law upon one another. Hmmmm, sounds a bit like males who try to establish dominance over each other, doesn't it? It's often a bloody matter, even leading to wars, etc).
Anyway, the problem with letting Eve off the hook is that she repeated the "thou shalt not eat" rule to the serpent, which acknowledges her comprehension of the rule (and it's irrelevant whether she heard it from YHWH, or if it was relayed via Adam). She obviously had a logical understanding of it.
Although as you pointed out, the question is whether they had the moralcapabilities to process that knowledge, and make a moral decision based on that knowledge, IS an unanswered question. I call that the "Paradox of A&E", since the Bible DOES depict them as children-like before eating, unable to make good decisions (by eating the fruit: exhibit #1), as if sociopaths acting before considered the effects on others of their impulsive actions (sociopaths seemingly don't have a conscience or inner sense of morality; certainty they have no respect for rules). The Bible offers some tantalizing hints that demonstrates their sociopathic traits, including those behaviors exhibited in their offspring (need I mention Cain, the World's 1st murderer?).
I've always thought the logical "fly in the ointment" of the story is that if they didn't have a moral capacity to determine the wrongness of disobeying God, then it would be cruel of YHWH to hand them the death penalty (not to mention, the rest of us!) since they were operating on what today we'd refer to as "Diminished Capacity". Blame God: he shouldn't have made man without whatever the Magic Tree imparted to them. (Perhaps He intended to do some beta-testing on them, and hence why He put the Tree in the middle of the Garden). The story also raises the question of the careless stewardship God displays by putting something with such devastating consequences for mankind within their reach... Not smart, esp when it is known that it wouldn't take an omniscient and omnipotent being to order a bored Cherubim to guard it 24/7!
God perhaps should have given them His permission to eat a bit of the fruit BEFORE deciding to eat the fruit: that's the paradox of the story, though, and makes it so interesting even to this day.
(I know: the story was written AFTERWARDS, as a way to explain where we ended to that point in time. A happy ending wouldn't provide an answer to "why do men die?", etc.)
I've not heard of the attempt of JWs to let her off the hook, but that would be in keeping with the JW Bible-based male chauvanistic view to think, "Those stupid women, they just cannot UNDERSTAND this really complicated stuff, like us MALES can, with our knowledge-endowing penises", LOL! Interesting, esp. in light of the idea of a group of males trying to establish their dominance and control over all females? :)
Of course, Eve cannot win for losing: her original Sin has been used as the basis for men to suppress the weaker sex, based on old misogynistic Hebrew beliefs.
Adding to that, the JWs preach that in the New System tm we will be returned to a state like that of Adam. So we won't know evil? How can we make a choice, when we don't know what the choices are?? Isn't that a little like a robot?
Yup, that's the implication to me, as I'm reading it.
In other words, we'd be NO different from A&E BEFORE they ate the fruit: YHWH would demand total obedience to HIS laws, and hence no need for man to exercise his OWN morality. COMPLIANCE and BLIND UNQUESTIONED OBEDIENCE is required, NOT thinking you know better. Heck, that's the WHOLE point of the torah, and the WHOLE POINT of being a JW: OBEY, OBEY, OBEY! No thinking is required on your part, no independent research, no questioning of OUR doctrines.
So if you LIKE being told what to do by the GB, you'll LOVE the New System of Things: when it comes to control of every detail of your life, you ain't seen nothing yet! :)
Not to worry, though: The Adam and Eve tale shares MANY similarities to the old tale of Adam, eh I mean Prometheus, stealing fire (which is analogous to knowledge, not just moral knowledge) from YHWH, eh, I mean Zeus; Eve, eh, I mean Pandora is responsible for bringing misery to the World, just like Eve brought childbirth pains to women for her sin, and Prometheus is punished to eternity to have his liver eaten out by a bird, a Sisypean task to which Adam was sentenced (toiling the Earth until his Death, when he returns to the soil from which he was made).
Just another ancient myth (which was stolen at that), folks....
