4 Elements of the Fall You Might Not

Realize Are Symbolic

byJoseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, excerpted from "The Man Adam" | Jan. 01,
2019
Makes You Think
The confusion of tongues in the city of Babel is no match for the confusion of ideas and doctrines
among Bible believers as to the meaning of Eden and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from its
paradisiacal splendors. In unfolding that story we make no pretense to being smarter than others.
Indeed, answers to spiritual queries have little to do with the powers of intellect alone, while they have
much to do with eyes and ears endowed with a capacity to see and hear. Such is the privilege of those
of the household of faith, those of believing blood, those who have schooled themselves in the
revelations of the Restoration—the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the book of Moses,
and the temple ceremony. Such are the sources to which we turn to obtain an understanding of Eden
and the experiences of those who once resided there.

The Creation of Adam and Eve

The scriptural account of the birth of Adam is a sacred metaphor, as is the account of the birth of his
eternal companion, Eve. Indeed, it is Adam and the Lord who are quoted in the discourse by Enoch in
which we are told that all mankind are born of the dust of the earth (see Moses 6:49-59). Thus the
promise to Adam that in death his body would return to the dust from whence it was taken (Moses 4:25)
is extended to all his posterity. "All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again" (Eccl. 3:20; see also
Mosiah 2:25).
The imagery used to veil the account of Eve's birth is most beautiful, particularly so in a day when there
is so much confusion about the role of women. Symbolically, she was not taken from the bones of
Adam's head nor from the bones of his heel, for it is not the place of woman to be either above the man
or beneath him. Her place is at his side, and so she is taken, in the figurative sense, from his rib—the
bone that girds the side and rests closest to the heart. Thus we find Adam declaring: "This I know now
is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of
man" (Moses 3:23). Eve, unlike the rest of God's creations, was of Adam's bone and of his flesh,
meaning that she was equal to him in powers, faculties, and rights.
► You'll also like: 3 Ways Eve Is a Type of Christ (+ the Special Title Reserved Only for Eve and
the Lord)

The Garden of Eden

What then became of Eden? This we know: it constituted sacred space when mother earth resided in
her paradisiacal state, for it was here that Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, and it was from
the confines of Eden that they were cast following their transgression. Further, we know that it existed
after the Fall for a period of time and that God continued to instruct Adam and Eve from its sacred
groves. (Moses 5:4; 6:4.) In likening Tyrus to Eden, Ezekiel made use of the term "mountain of God"
(Ezek. 28:13-14), a phrase used throughout the scriptures to depict a place where one went to
commune with God, to worship, to make sacrifices, and to enter into sacred covenants. Mountains
were most suited for such purposes and thus became symbols for the temple, the place where heaven
and earth meet. Perhaps Ezekiel was implying that Eden was a mountain or at least had a high place
suited for worship.
As to what became of Eden, the scriptures are silent. Perhaps, after Adam and his righteous posterity
had built the city of Adam-ondi-Ahman—which undoubtedly would have had a temple—Eden was no
longer needed as a place of God's presence. A place of sacrifice and of covenant, Eden thus could
either be taken into heaven or be allowed to be assimilated into the earth.

The Trees of Eden

What of the trees of Eden? Was there actually a tree whose fruit would make one wise, and another
whose fruit would assure everlasting life? The scriptural account, for instance, tells us that the Lord
planted "the tree of knowledge of good and evil" in the midst of the garden (Moses 3:9). He then gave
Adam and Eve the command: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it
is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die"
(Moses 3:16-17). "Again," wrote Elder Bruce R. McConkie, "the account is speaking figuratively. What
is meant by partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that our first parents
complied with whatever laws were involved so that their bodies would change from their state of
paradisiacal immortality to a state of natural mortality." Elder McConkie also wrote elsewhere: "We do
not know how the fall was accomplished any more than we know how the Lord caused the earth to
come into being and to spin through the heavens in its paradisiacal state."
If we were to reason that it was the fruit itself that brought about this change in the bodies of Adam and
Eve, we would then have to suppose that our first parents fed some of the fruit to all the other living
things upon the whole earth. Had they not done so, "all things which were created must have remained
in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever,
and had no end" (2 Ne. 2:22; see also Moses 3:9). Every plant and animal, including all sea life and the
fowls of the air, would have been required to eat some of this fruit (and must also have been precluded
from partaking of it either by design or accident before this point of time).
► You'll also like: Why the Fall Was Designed + the Beautiful Lesson We Learn About the
Atonement from Eve

Satan As a Serpent
What of the serpent that beguiled Eve into partaking of the forbidden fruit? Did animals in Eden have
the capacity to converse in the language of men, as some ancient traditions suggest? Was it then a
natural thing for Eve to have a conversation with a serpent? And what of the curse which consigned the
serpent to crawl upon its belly and eat of the dust of the earth? Does this suggest that snakes once
stood upright, having legs and arms, as they are so commonly depicted in ancient Egyptian drawings?
The key question is, Did Satan actually possess the body of a serpent and speak to Eve through that
medium, or did Moses choose to describe Eve's confrontation with the father of lies as a discussion
with a snake because a snake is such a vivid metaphor to dramatize the subtle, crafty, and dangerous
nature of the devil?
Whether a serpent was actually the agent of deception in the Eden story or merely a metaphorical
representation of the devil, it matters little. Neither point of view changes or tampers with the integrity
of the story. If, however, we assume the partaking of the fruit to have been a figurative representation
of what actually brought about the transformation of the earth from a paradisiacal to a natural or mortal
sphere, then it might follow that the speaking serpent would also have been figurative.
What, then, do we conclude of the Eden story? Was it figurative or literal? We answer by way of
comparison. It, like the temple ceremony, combines a rich blend of both. Our temples are real, the
priesthood is real, the covenants we enter into are real, and the blessings we are promised by
obedience are real; yet the teaching device may be metaphorical. We are as actors on a stage. We
role-play and imagine. We do not actually advance from one world to another in the temple, but rather
are taught with figurative representations of what can and will be.