Actually the directly applicable story is the sequel Perelandra. The protagonist Ranson and the main baddie from the first book Weston journey to Venus in time to encounter the Venusian* Eve, who is tempted by a demonically possessed Weston. The Adam counterpart doesn’t put in an appearance until the main action is over and relates the following:
But after that He showed me in a darkness what was happening to the Queen. And I knew it was possible for her to be undone. And then I saw what had happened in your world, and how your Mother fell and how your Father went with her, doing her no good thereby and bringing the darkness upon all their children. And then it was before me like a thing coming towards my hand… what I should do in like case. There I learned of evil and good, of anguish and joy.”
Ransom had expected the King to relate his decision, but when the King’s voice died away into thoughtful silence he had not the assurance to question him.
“Yes…” said the King, musing. “Though a man were to be torn in two halves… though half of him turned into earth… The living half must still follow Maleldil. For if it also lay down and became earth, what hope would there be for the whole? But while one half lived, through it He might send life back into the other.” Here he paused for a long time, and then spoke again somewhat quickly. “He gave me no assurance.
-starts typing a reply, then reads more carefully-
Sorry, was going to speak from a Jewish perspective again, and that’s not what you’re looking for. Our relationship with, and expectations from Jehovah are different from what you’re asking.
But, trying to go with the hypothetical, and assuming a devout Christian who would entertain it without getting into predestination and the three in one paradox in that case, what I -think- they would argue is that if Adam and Eve had obeyed, they’d have continued, fundamentally forever in a near-but-sub-divine state in Eden. IE something close to a early human definition of “heaven” where there is no pain, suffering, hunger or need to work. An alternate POV is that as long as you accept the Christian doctrine embracing the existence of Lucifer/Satan/The Serpent, then one would have to suspect that somehow or other, eventually, given a near eternity, they’d find a way to make Adam or Eve fall. Although it amuses me to consider how different Western culture would have been if Eve and Adam refused, and then a decade later, it was Adam that got suckered by the Serpent and imposed on Eve instead. Would men (males) be the scapegoat for the next few thousand years?
Anyway I have always seen Genesis as a “just-so-story” to explain how we got to this screwed up state of affairs, or an abstraction of Humanities desire to justify hierarchy - if people just did as they were told then everyone would be better off according to those who are doing the telling.
I have always read the Fall as the birth of self-awareness, that is, the sense of being separate from God, separate from other people. There is an invisible wall between each of us and the world. That is self-consciousness.
If Adam never attained this knowledge of good and evil, self-awareness, a conscience, and Eve did, they would not be the same kind of being. There would be no other human beings. Or perhaps, the males would be treated like dangerous but necessary slaves. Only the best would be kept for breeding, of course.
Frank Herbert makes an interesting assertion in “God Emperor of Dune”. Leto asserts that Adam, in fact, ate from the tree first, but knew to blame Eve.
There’s no real justification to the remark, it’s sort of made in passing to hint at his motives for certain actions.
He keeps Face Dancers alive so there is a scapegoat.
IIRC, there were two trees: the (forbidden) tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the all-you-can-eat tree of life.
Surely the very original was a remark on sexual politics, so if that’s your thing, knock yourself out. I’m content with Mark Twain’s version, where Adam reconciles himself with his epitaph at Eve’s grave: “Wheresoever she was, there was Eden.”
Despite the whole mess being about the forbidden fruit of knowledge of good and evil, and then being cast out into a world with both prospects, humanity still doesn’t have a strong grasp on the concepts of good and evil. This was best understood by Fr. John Ball, a sort of chaplain to the Peasants’ Revolt, who wrote “When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?” Meaning that Eden
That’s definitely part of it. IMHO the implication is that Adam is in some sense more obedient to God’s orders than Eve. Presumably had the serpent tempted Adam directly, he would have refused. It’s only when a woman tempted him that he could no longer resist.
That’s pretty much how it goes down in the Mormon temple ceremony, which contains the creation story as part of the narrative: Lucifer tempts Adam, he refuses, Lucifer temps Eve and she accepts, then she tells Adam he needs to eat the fruit as well or they’ll end up separated. You can read their fan-fictional version of the story here:
(Scroll down to the “Sixth Day”.)
As for why it was supposed to be that way, the story from my religions classes was that God couldn’t create anything imperfect and so it had to be humanity’s choice to “fall” into mortality. They said that Adam/Eve’s “un-mortal” bodies were not capable of having kids in the garden, but after they ate the fruit their bodies changed. I reasoned to myself at the time that the fruit unlocked a Hidden Achievement in their DNA and they went through puberty or something. Problem is, the fall affected all the animals, too, and they didn’t eat the fruit. I guess I didn’t think of that back then…
According to Mormon tradition we don’t know how long they were in the garden before they ate the fruit. Could have been a day, could have been a thousand years. Whatever it was, they’d just be chilling there and we’d be up in heaven waiting for them to “just eat the damn fruit already!” so we could eventually be born here on Earth.
And the LORD God said: ‘Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.’
