In this adaptation from their book, Curious Minds: The Power of Connection, authors Perry Zurn and Dani S. Bassett survey how the curious have been interpreted over time. They’ve been characterized as mere busybodies, wanting to know the news at the local market, to actual sinners who condemned all of mankind after that unfortunate incident with the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
In the Bible, the curious person is in many ways similarly positioned as a sinner. Genesis begins, of course, with a story of creation and curiosity. The first woman, Eve, wants to partake of the one tree forbidden to her, representing the knowledge from which she and Adam are prohibited. Curious to know good and evil, she eats — that is, she reaches for, grasps, tugs, acquires, ingests, and consumes — a single piece of fruit from the forbidden tree, and her eyes are opened. Through her, all of humanity is condemned, metaphorically, to creep on its belly like a serpent, eating things worldly rather than spiritual.
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