Some see the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as just that—a story without any historical basis—while others understand it as recorded history. How did the early Church of God understand the garden encounter with a talking serpent, recorded in the third chapter of the book of Genesis? And what, if anything, are we to learn from it? The answer to the second question has implications that go far beyond what most imagine, and is also the answer to another one of mankind’s most troubling questions.