Adam and Eve are literal people who lived real lives. The story of Adam and Eve has four layers of meaning. The Catholic church calls is Quadriga. Raymond Brown calls it sensus plenior (in which I see four voices of God as King, Prophet, Judge, Priest), The Jews call it Pashat, Remez, Drash and Sod.
The literal guides and constrains the others.
The serpent was ‘more subtle’ than the other animals, which means that the other animals also must have been tempting Eve in a blatant fashion. Since the only command given was that they should not eat the fruit, the nature of the temptation was to eat the fruit. So it is likely that the other animals ate the fruit. They were allowed to, being animals of instinct rather than the word. The natural resistance to that temptation is to see that animals are different from us. “They are animals, we are more than animals.”
Eve gave into the instinctive nature. The fruit looked good and smelled good. Concerning the Word of God, she was deceived by the subtle shifting of the serpent. These are the evidences that it was not rebellion, but simple instinctive responses. Furthermore we are told that sin came into the world, and death thereby by one man. Not by a woman and man. This validates that Eve’s sin did not bring death into the world. Adam did because he sinned knowing exactly what he was doing.
Paul talks plainly about the flesh and it’s desires and about putting on the new man and putting off the old man. The dualism of which I speak is the same dualism of which Paul speaks. Our old nature seeks to preserve and exalt the self. Our new nature puts God and others first.
When God created, ALL things were good, including the flesh. He intended that we enjoy the physical world within the bounds of his word - Don’t eat the fruit. I am not sure why this is controversial at all.
Now look at the voice of the Judge, or the moral teaching. When we are born, we have the same instinctive nature as animals for self preservation. As we look around at animals, we are tempted to learn our dinner manners from the pig, our group dynamics from the goat and our modesty from the cat. Scientists claim homosexual behavior is natural from seagulls, and have humans on display in the London zoo to teach us that we are mere animals.
But we are more than animals born with the built in ability to communicate propositionally, and to choose selflessness. The law and all it’s accoutrements are designed to remind us that we are more than animals. The flesh did not become evil with the fall, it became preeminent in our nature. Baby Jesus was born without such a disability.
So more directly, the flesh is that biological entity with all the naturalistic and unconscious tendencies for self-preservation and self-satisfaction. The soul is that part of the unregenerate mind which has the ability but not the will to respond to propositional circumstances. It is the higher intellect of the unregenerate flesh. The spirit is that which is imparted by the living breath of God, by the person of the Holy Spirit. It is He that gives eternal life and the ability to overcome the nature of the flesh and soul.
— Now look at the voice of the prophet–
The riddle buried in Gen 2:20 says: And God caused Christ to die and he died, and he married a certain limping side and delivered mankind. You can dig it out with as double entendre using the Hebrew dictionary.
It causes us to correlate the bruised heel of the seed of the woman, and the withered thigh of Jacob. These represent the submission of Christ’s flesh to the Father’s will at Gethsemane. He had a flesh that did not wish to die… Remove this cup… but he did not make it preeminent as we do and instead prayed… nevertheless, not my will but thine.
Since we are to be ‘like him’. We too should be limping. Putting off the old man, the self-serving flesh, and putting on the new man.
common sense would say that sin first of all involves an action which is freely chosen.
Sometimes common sense can lead us astray, in the law there were offenses and penalties for acts committed unknowingly, and when you discovered you had committed them, the sacrifices applied.
Thanks for asking for a clarification.
