The garden
The Four States
Genesis is read as four states, from Eden before the fruit to the eviction and then to the end. The state Jesus restores is the one the snake wanted, and the text never calls that figure Satan.
Coming up next Humankind is made in the image of the Elohim
Summary
Genesis 1 has the Elohim make humankind, male and female together, in their image and likeness. Genesis 2 starts again with Yhwh, one man, and a warning that on the day they eat they will die. The snake tells the woman they will not die, that their eyes will open, and that they will be like the Elohim, knowing good and evil. Yhwh comes walking in the garden, asks who told them they were naked, and asks whether they ate.
Yhwh then says the man has become like one of us and must not eat from the tree of life, or he would live forever. Psalm 82 says the Elohim will die like humans, which the talk ties to being cut off from that fruit. The false line in the story is Yhwh's threat of death on the day they eat. Revelation puts the tree of life back in reach and says the curse is gone.
Before the fruit, Adam and Eve are in Eden, unaware, unafraid, and not cursed, with the tree of life still available. While the snake is there they know good and evil, the snake stays to face Yhwh, and they are still not cursed. When Yhwh returns they are sent out, the way to the tree is guarded, and they hide because they are afraid of him. The end returns that garden, the tree, and the lack of fear and curse, which is why the talk says the text never calls the snake Satan and sets Jesus beside that figure, including the bronze snake Yhwh had Moses lift up in Numbers 21.
