For the Jews, who were humiliated by conquerors, a problem was raised. If God was good, why would he allow such things to happen? Jewish scholars arrived at a somber explanation: the entire history of humanity was one of disobedience to God.
Making man and woman, he had given them a garden named Eden to tend, filled with every kind of exotic plant; and all its fruit was theirs to eat, save only that of a single tree, ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. But the first woman, Eve, had been tempted by the serpent to taste the fruit of the tree; and the first man, Adam, had taken it from her, and tasted it as well. God, to punish them, had expelled the couple from Eden, and cursed them, decreeing that from that time on women were to suffer the agonies of childbirth, and men to labor for their food, and die.