And the Lord God took the ma, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shal not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 2:15-17
I'm very, very grateful that in the Book of Mormon, and I think elsewhere in our scriptures, the fall of Adam has not been called a sin. It wasn't a sin. . . . What did Adam do? The very thing the Lord wanted him to do; and I hate to hear anybody call it a sin, for it wasn't a sin. Did Adam sin when he partook of the forbidden fuit? I say to you, no, he did not! Now, let me refer to what was written in the book of Moses in regard to the command God gave to Adam. [Moses 3:16-17]
Now this is the way I interpret that: The Lord said to Adam, here is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you want to stay here, then you cannot eat of that fruit. But you may act for yourself, and you may eat of it if you want to. And if you eat it, you will die.
I see a great difference between transgressing the law and committing a sin.
Joseph Fielding Smith, "Fall--Atonement--Resurrection--Sacrament," in Charge to Religious Education, 124
Adam and Eve were chosen to come here as the primal parents of humanity. And they were placed in the Garden of Eden where there was no death and we read in the scriptures that they could have lived in that Garden forever, but not under the most favorable circumstances. For there, although they were in the presence of God, they were deprived of certain knowledge and understanding in a condition where they could not understand clearly things that were necessary for them to now. Therefore, it became essential to their salavation and to our that their nature should be changed. The only way it could be changed was violation by the violation of the law under which they were at that time. Mortality could not come without violation of that law and mortality was essential, a step towards our exaltation. Therefore, Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, forbidden in a rather peculiar manner for it is the only place in all the history where we read that the Lord forbade something and yet said, "Nevertheless thous mayest choose for thyself." He never said that of any sin. I do not look upon Adam's fall as a sin, although it was a transgression of the law. It had to be. And Adam came under a different law. The temporal law. And he became subject to death. The partaking of that fruit created blood in hhis body and that blood became the life-giving influence of morality.
Jospeh Fielding Smith, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [25 Jan. 1955], 2
Satan, through the serpent, tempted Eve to eat the fruit. She shared it with Adam. Both Adam and Eve made their own choice to eat the fruit, knowing the consequences. They may or may not have realized at the time that it was a necessary part of God's plan, but they knew they would be cast out of the garden of Eden. The devil tempted Eve, but it was her choice and she made it, and so did Adam when it was presented to him.
And now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which I, the Lord God, had made. And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguild Eve, for he knew no the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world. And he said unto the woman: Yea, hath God said--Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (And he spake by the mouth of the serpent.) And the woman said unto the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; But of the fruit of the tree which thou beholdest in the midst of the garden, God hat said--Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die; Fod God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it became pleasant to the eyes, and a a tree to be desired to make her wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
Moses 4:5-12
The devil in tempting Eve told a truth when he said unto her that when she should eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they should become as Gods. He told the truth in telling that, but he accompanied it with a lie as he always does. He never tells the complete truth. He said that they should not die. The Fathe had said that they should die. The devil had to tell a lie in order to accomplish his purposes; but there was some truth in his statement. Their eyes were opened. They had a knoledge of good and evil just as the God have.
George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth, 1:16
The adversary, Lucifer, through the serpent beguiled Eve and deceived her and induced her to eat of the forbidden fruit. It was not so with Adam. . . . He knew that unless he did partake there would be an eternal separation between him and the partner that God had given to him, so he transgressed the law. . . . Because had he not partaken of the fruit, they would have been eternally separated.
George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth, 1:24
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