The fall of our first parents and the subsequent fall of humanity into a life of sin takes place within the context of a garden, namely: the Garden of Eden. Although I am fairly confident that the fall of humanity did take place within a literal garden, I also find compelling evidence that the use of garden imagery was a deliberate attempt on the part of the author to give us a clue as to the actual nature of Adam and Eve's transgression.
In ancient traditions, a garden was an image of both paradise lost and paradise restored. In fact, the word "garden" has the same etymological meaning as "paradise." In the Song of Songs, a garden is a metaphor for sexual paradise. Song of Songs 4:12 refers to a woman's body as an enclosed garden. "A garden enclosed is my sister...," which refers to the body of the Shulamite. Verse 16 seems to refer not only to the woman's body in general, but specifically to her sex organ. Shulamite invites her lover, perhaps Solomon himself, to...
...blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits.The obvious interpretaion of this passage seems clear: Shulamite is metaphorically comparing her female sex organ, i.e. her vagina, to a garden. Spices flowing out of this garden is clearly poetic language describing a female orgasm. And eating the pleasant fruits of this garden is clearly using a metaphor to describe lovemaking.
Since the Bible itself uses garden imagery and eating fruit as metaphors for sexual activity in the Song of Songs, we should not rule out the possibility that the Bible is also using metaphors, or perhaps double-entendre, for sexual activity in the Eden account found in Genesis.
