The Punishment of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent After the Fall
Teachings of Ɔkrɔnkrɔnyi Nyame Somafo Yawoh
Written by Mensah Adinkrah, Ph.D.
What punishment did the Most High God RABBI impose on Adam, Eve, and the serpent following the Fall in the Garden of Eden?
In the Bible, “The Fall” refers to the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the first humans, when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.
On June 1, 2025, during a virtual teaching and learning session organized by the Asomdwee Ntonton Som Diaspora Branch via Zoom, Ɔkrɔnkrɔnyi Nyame Somafo Yawoh offered a revelatory discourse on the divine punishments issued after the transgression in Eden. A participant in the session inquired about the specific penalties that the Supreme God RABBI meted out to the serpent, the woman, and the man following their disobedience. Somafo Yawoh responded by drawing on the sacred text in Genesis 3:14–17, and offered further spiritual insights.
The Serpent
According to Ɔkrɔnkrɔnyi Nyame Somafo Yawoh, prior to the Fall, the serpent was a quadruped, possessing limbs akin to those of a horse. However, after its deception of the woman, God commanded the Archangel Michael to descend and shatter the legs of the serpent. From that moment forward, the serpent was condemned to slither upon its belly. This divine judgment is articulated in Genesis 3:14:
“So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.’” (Genesis 3:14, NIV)
Thus, the serpent was not only physically transformed but also spiritually degraded—destined to inhabit the dust and remain an eternal symbol of deception and disgrace.
The Woman (Eve)
God had originally intended that human procreation be a painless and joyful experience. But following the woman’s role in the disobedience, she was cursed with the burden of painful childbirth and the experience of maternal sorrow. This punishment is explicitly stated in Genesis 3:16:
“To the woman he said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’” (Genesis 3:16, NIV)
In this pronouncement, the consequences of the Fall disrupted the original harmony between the sexes and introduced both physical pain and relational hierarchy into the human experience.
The Man (Adam)
Adam, who was appointed as caretaker of the garden, also bore the weight of divine judgment. Because he listened to the voice of his wife and ate from the forbidden tree, the very ground he was to till became cursed. Henceforth, his sustenance would be earned through hard labor and sweat. As stated in Genesis 3:17:
“To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.’” (Genesis 3:17, NIV)
In this way, Adam’s punishment entailed a fundamental alteration of the human relationship to labor and the earth itself, introducing struggle and hardship as enduring features of human existence.
About The Author
Very interesting revelation concerning the punishment meted out to Adam and Eve. My concern on this is that were they to proud to ask for forgiveness? If they asked for forgiveness , were they pleased with the form of punishment they received to the extent that all the pain associated with the punishment were not reduced at all till date. Even the wife of a prophet Jacob has to die through childbirth when delivering Benjamin….