(Evelyn is just here reading aloud. She's going to put off any feelings of her own for LATER.) 

Iomedae did not know any of this but it is obviously Pharasmin rather than Arodenite theology and she's never read a Pharasmin holy book. 

"Did God also only make boy animals, and make girl animals when She made girl people?"

"...Huh, what a good question! I could - see it either way, I guess - I'm really not an expert on Biblical interpretation...." 

(Evelyn is pretty sure that God didn't personally make all the animals and that this entire section is metaphorical, but does she feel like debating that right now: no. No she does not.) 

She's going to just keep reading. 

The Garden of Eden

Genesis 2:8-17, 24-25

God chose the prettiest part of the earth and gave it to Adam and the woman. It was a garden called Eden. In Eden all the animals lived peacefully with each other. No one was afraid.

Adam and the woman loved God very much. They walked around their garden with no clothes on because they had no reason to feel ashamed. For them there was one thing even better than all the dazzling flowers, tall trees and lovely smells in Eden. It was that they knew God loved them very much.

God told Adam and the woman they could do whatever they wanted. There was just one rule they must follow. God said, “You may eat fruit from any of the trees here except one. And that is the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” The two people understood.

All for a Piece of Fruit

Genesis 3:1-19

Of all the animals in Eden the serpent was smarter and craftier than the rest. One day the serpent crept toward the woman. He teased her, “You don’t have to listen to God. You can eat from that tree in the middle of the garden. You won’t die!”

After this, the woman walked over to the tree. She did not know what she should do. Then she made a choice.

She picked a piece of fruit and took a bite. She brought the fruit to Adam and asked him to eat. Once they had both taken a bite they suddenly felt as if a cloud were hanging over them. The sunshine felt cold. For the first time ever, they were afraid.

 

They had done the wrong thing. The Lord was very sad because He must discipline His children. God did this because He cared. He wanted Adam and the woman to know that every choice was their own. Some choices lead to good things while other choices can be painful.

Evelyn has some feelings about this, apparently. It's...been a pretty long time since she read through the Bible in order, and somehow the shortened illustrated children's version of it hits harder. 

Her emotions aren't Iomedae or Alfirin's problem, though. She keeps reading. 

"Why did the woman eat the apple if God said to not eat the apple?? That is very stupid and bad."

"....That's also a good question!" And one which Evelyn feels deeply unprepared for. "I - don't know, exactly. I wasn't in Eve's head when she decided - and we don't know if Eve - the woman in the story, sorry, they took her name out in this version but in the usual Bible she's called Eve - I don't know if she actually existed, as a specific person, or if it's - a story that's about all of the humans as they were a long time ago..." 

(Also Evelyn only just now managed to notice explicitly that the story was fine with giving Adam a name, apparently it's just Eve who didn't deserve one - wow she has angry-feminist feelings about this suddenly...) 

"- I think the idea is that Eve wanted to - understand the world for herself, and make her own choices, and have her own ideas for things she could build? And - I think Jesus, the God you know, is fine with that, I think He wants that, but I guess that really early on, God didn't understand that yet." 

"God want us to learn and make choices, but if God say not to touch a tree, God do not want us to touch the tree."

....Iomedae seems to feel really strongly about this. That seems - important. 

Evelyn did promise (to herself, if no one else) that she wasn't going to keep digging for answers to questions that Iomedae and Alfirin aren't ready to trust her with yet, but - that doesn't mean she has to blaze ahead and keep reading (though that would honestly be the easier path, here and now.) 

"Hm...?" She's looking at the book, not Iomedae, but she makes a listening sort of noise and doesn't keep reading just yet. 

"- I sorry, ma'am. The way you think about gods is very - not the way I was learned to think of gods. I do not know this story, I know more of god who was human, but - but the first thing every child have to learn is, if someone says do not eat that, do not eat that. It is not - learning to make choices, to eat a thing someone said not to eat. You just die."

"...I mean, in America I think kids don't usually die of eating things they shouldn't? Because usually their parents take them to the hospital in time and they get treated for it. - that's not the point. We'll get to the Jesus parts if we keep reading."

(She's a little bit tempted to just skip ahead, but not very, and that's only partly because she doesn't actually know this Bible or what page number to skip to. It...seems important, for Iomedae to hear and see some of what American Christianity means.) 

"Not for a long time I think, if this start at the stars. I glad to know this. Thank you for reading."

Out of Eden

Genesis 3:20-24

God told Adam and the woman that they must leave the garden of Eden. Otherwise, He said, they might disobey again and eat from another forbidden tree, the tree of life.

Adam and the woman looked at each other. They were together, but they still felt frightened of all that lay ahead. When they left Eden they would have to work hard to find enough to eat.

Adam gave the woman a name then. He called her Eve, which meant “Living.”

Adam and Eve bowed their heads. They felt very sad. They knew God would continue to show His love for them. But the worst part of their punishment was that they would never be as close to God as they had been before they chose to disobey Him.

(...Evelyn has feelings. But she doesn't really want to talk about them. She keeps reading.) 

Two Brothers

Genesis 4:1-2

After Adam and Eve left Eden, they took care of each other. Soon their first child was born. They named him Cain. Later they had a second little boy. They named him Abel.

Cain and Abel helped their parents live in the world outside Eden. There they had to work hard to make sure they had enough to eat.

Cain’s way of helping the family was to grow crops. He looked forward to the rain which watered the seeds he had planted. The grain he grew could be ground into flour for making bread.

 

He also gathered vegetables and fruit. Abel’s way of helping was to raise sheep and goats. He would milk the goats or sometimes kill them for the meat.

The First Murder

Genesis 4:3-16

One day Cain put together some of the crops he had grown and offered them to say thank you to God. Abel did the same, but he chose the best of the fattest of the lambs to give back to God.

God looked at the gifts both boys were offering Him. He liked Abel’s gift better than Cain’s.

This made Cain angry. He did not think God was being fair. God told Cain he could choose to do right or wrong. Cain chose to be angry.

He came up with a plan. He called Abel out to the fields. There, Cain did something very bad. He killed Abel.

This part is...actually hard, to keep reading through. But Evelyn doesn't– ...she pauses, briefly, takes a breath, but she doesn't stop reading. She should at least get to the end of the page. 

God called him, “Cain, where is your brother Abel?” Cain shook his head.

 

God said, “You have done wrong. As your punishment, you will no longer be able to grow your crops. I am sending you away from here.” So Cain had to live in the land of Nod, which meant “Wandering.”

This telling makes all of the suffering in the world sound very profoundly preventable by refraining for five minutes from sheer Evil and/or idiocy. The holy texts she's familiar with have a very different emphasis, one where humankind is great but beset by even greater adversaries, with whom peace was attempted before war was pursued. But then, this is a children's telling, and children in fact need lessons about avoiding Evil and/or idiocy. And it's a telling of a much earlier time.

Noah Builds a Boat

Genesis 6:5-22

Many, many years passed. After so much time, most of the people living on the earth chose not to care about God anymore. They no longer taught their children to thank God. Over and over again they chose to hurt and lie and do wrong.

God looked at the people and grew very sad. He saw all the pain they caused each other. He wished He had never created people with the rest of the animals on earth. God decided He would take away the lives on earth which He had made.

At this time, when so many were bad, one man was different. His name was Noah. Noah often asked God’s help. Noah listened for God’s answers and then obeyed Him. This pleased God.

God told Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people. I will cause a huge flood to cover the land and everyone will drown. But I will spare you and those you love. Build a big boat, and build it the way I say to. Then fill it with two of every type of animal. Fill it with food. Then you will be safe.”

Noah trusted God. God gave Noah the plans for making the boat which was called an ark.

The Voyage of the Ark

Genesis 7:1-16

When the ark was finished Noah’s family climbed in and left the door open. Soon animals and birds and all creeping creatures came crawling their way to Noah’s ark. What a sight it was! And the noise was enough to bring Noah’s neighbors out to watch and shake their heads all over again.

There were lions roaring, donkeys braying, dogs barking, birds singing and sheep bleating. Two by two, the animals entered the ark, all different types and shapes and sizes. Tiny worms wiggled, horses pranced and rabbits hopped.

 

After all the animals were inside, God closed the door to the boat, and quickly locked it so no one would fall out. And then it began to rain. It rained and rained and rained.

(Evelyn is going to run out of energy for reading the entire Bible out loud to Iomedae, at some point. But hopefully it's at least useful for vocabulary?) 

Iomedae is charitably inclined towards gods, if they are not running Hell. She knows they are much much smarter than her, and that they can act only indirectly, and that they are opposed by great evils. It makes sense that eating a cursed fruit would make a person so dangerous that they could no longer remain in paradise, if it makes them possible for demon lords to act through or something. It makes sense to exile people for murder, if for some reason you are not inclined to execute them. 

....it makes less sense to drown the whole world. She's having some difficulty thinking of any circumstances under which it makes sense, actually. 

"Lots of the people are children," she observes.

Evelyn had been trying kind of hard over here to not have feelings. 

"...Yeah. I - don't like this story either. ...I don't think it's something Jesus would do? But Jesus could - understand humans, because he was born as a human, I think that's kind of the point? That God was - doing His best, but cruel by accident, until He sent his only begotten son to save us..." 

Evelyn has an unreasonable number of feelings, yet again. Hopefully at some point they'll get through all of the random unexpected stupidly feelings-inducing trigger points and it will be less like this. 

"Yes, I know Jesus not do this," she says. "But I have thinked that other gods before Jesus sayed, no, do not kill all the children, then Limbo will be full of babies."

...Right her religion is some weird polytheistic thing. Evelyn had sort of forgotten about that. Ugh. Evelyn is maybe kind of bad at this. 

"I think the babies would be fine?" Wow Evelyn does not want to keep having this conversation. "Because - they haven't sinned, they couldn't have since they're babies, and Jesus loves them. ...I guess I don't know what happened to the babies who died in the Flood, before Jesus was born."

"They go to Limbo but there is no one there to raise them because their parents are not Heaven bird people. I do not think God - God make world - I do not think God want this? It is a bad thing to want. Killing everyone is evil."

Evelyn can't argue with that and doesn't want to. 

"....Should we stop reading? I can check the book out, if you want to - have the chance to read more of it later - but I think maybe it'd be better to read more of it at home."