1159. Why did this life that was emerging into the light get the idea of "eating of the tree of knowledge"? Well, the "serpent" beguiled it. So who was the "serpent"? Well, in order to understand this we must, by means of the cosmic world picture that we have long since unveiled here in "Livets Bog", grasp that the "Bible's" narrative of "Adam" and "Eve" expresses a colossal section of the "living being's" period of evolution or creation. "Adam" and "Eve" are thus universal designations for the "living being" in this particular, specific period. This period extends in the spiral cycle from the emergence of the individual life form's very first feeble appearance on the physical plane to the section where this life form has become the "finished" being, which means, the being in "God's image" or the "perfect human being". In this period the "living being" will thus be the "unfinished Adam". But the "unfinished Adam" can of course be nothing other than the being that God is in the process of "forming from the dust of the ground" and into whose nostrils He is "breathing the breath of life". This emergence of the being from the "dust of the ground" and this "breathing into his nostrils of the breath of life" will thus constitute the being's steps in evolution from its first emergence as a plant growing out of the "mineral kingdom" until its appearance constitutes a Christ-like being that is "one with the Father" or one hundred per cent in harmony with the law of neighbourly love, that is the "being in God's image". A "plant", an "animal" and a "terrestrial human being" thus constitute "Adam" and "Eve" at the various stages of their "creation".