The King James Bible: Genesis; Chapters 1-3

As a person who has never read the bible and does not know much about religion, The King James Bible was a text that truly interested me. From the very first reading, which were chapters 1-3 of Genesis, I was instantly drawn in. The story of Adam and Eve is especially interesting, seeing as they were the first people that God created. Something I noticed in these chapters were God’s contradicting statements, which set me into confusion. At first, when setting Adam and Eve into the garden of Eden, God said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat” (2:16). However, immediately after, God says, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (2:17). This part in particular confused me; how could he say that Adam and Eve are permitted to eat from every tree, yet say right after ‘Oh, except this tree’. Clearly, his original statement was either false, or was in fact true: perhaps they can eat from the tree despite its consequences, because maybe God intended for Adam and Eve to sin all along. At least, this is what went through my mind while reading chapters 1-3 of Genesis. I believe that maybe God did not have the heart to remove man’s immortality and such without reason, and instead gave the two a test of temptation that He knew they would fail in order to have a reason for ‘cursing’ them. Either way, these chapters challenge the idea of: is God just or is he unfair in his punishments? Learning in a discussion during class that chapter one of Genesis was added after chapters two and three were made to convince readers that God was almighty, powerful, and kind, it kind of makes me consider the previous question. Of course, the amazing thing about such readings is that everything is up to interpretation; if one wants to believe God’s punishments were fitting, then they can believe that- and, alternatively, if they want to believe God’s punishments were blown out of proportion, then they can choose to believe so as well.