‘And the man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” '
What an accurate picture of a man suffused in guilt. He seeks to place the blame anywhere but on himself. ‘The woman --'. She is the one who is to blame. She gave it to me. ‘Whom you gave to be with me.' It was really your fault, God, it was you who gave her to me. ‘She gave me fruit from the tree.' What else could I do? It would not have been nice to refuse. ‘And I ate.' In the end he has to admit a tiny bit of blame for himself.
So it is clear that the real culprits are the woman, and to some extent God. The fact, of course, was that the man himself was largely to blame. He was not deceived. He had been appointed by God and told that the fruit of the tree was banned. The tree was holy to the Lord. Had he stood firm, how the course of history would have changed. But he was deliberately disobedient. Possibly his only real excuse was that the woman was very beautiful and persuasive. But like the woman, he should have run away with his fingers in his ears.