Later, after the trouble started, Man and Woman wrote a story about it. It is not one of the stories I have been telling you, but it is a good story, and like those stories in many ways.
Listen carefully as I tell you, because even though the story is very clear in its meaning, you have been taught that it means the opposite of what it says.
The story tells how the world used to be like a garden, where Man and Woman lived in happiness together, listening to the Voice of Yahweh-Elohim speaking through nature and speaking within them. It tells of two trees that grew in the garden.
One was the tree of Life, whose fruit was Life.
The other was the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, whose fruit was the knowledge of Good and Evil.
Yahweh-Elohim told them in their hearts that it was not for Man and Woman to eat of the second tree. It was not for them to presume to know what is Good and what is Evil. It was enough to live according to the Word written in their hearts.
Yahweh-Elohim told them that such knowledge was reserved for the gods, and that if they ate the fruit of that tree it would bring them death.
But a serpent told them that they could become gods by eating the fruit of the tree. He told them that they could know Good from Evil, and that if they did, they would be like the gods.
Man and Woman ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. They partook of the knowledge Yahweh-Elohim warned them against. They took it upon themselves to presume to know what was Good and what was Evil, and decided that this knowledge should not be left to the wisdom of the gods.
Because of this, they had to leave the garden.
The story says that because of this, Man and Woman came to be ashamed of the bodies Yahweh-Elohim had given them, that because of this they began to blame and betray each other, that because of this Man came to rule over Woman, that because of this humans were forced to till the soil for a living.
This story spread among Man and Woman, and the people in power could not make it go away.
They were afraid, because their power and riches depended on the knowledge of Good and Evil, so they taught everyone that the story said the opposite of what it says.
They taught everyone that it was Man and Woman's duty to know Good and Evil, and that the story is about how evil Man and Woman are, especially if they do not obey those in power.
But the story is clear, it does not say that Man and Woman are evil. It says that Good and Evil are not their business, not even the business of those in power. The people in power have tried to hide this, but there have always been some who understood.
