Eve ate the fruit and nothing happened. The
bible records she gave to Adam who was with her and he partook of it.
Immediately their eyes were opened and they became ashamed. They died
spiritually immediately - lost the ability to be in God's presence. It
would take them 900 years to die physically, but not long before one of
their children died physically.
The tree was the tree of knowledge of
good and evil. It wasn't the tree of knowledge. Up to this point they
only knew good and had no knowledge of evil. The inference was that this
was all they needed to live safe in the garden.
They had been given
authority over "every creeping thing " in the garden and so they had
authority to deal with the snake. It appears the ultimate authority
rested with Adam because when Eve ate nothing is recorded as happening.
However when Adam ate then they fell from the position they had. Adam
could have stopped it by not eating.
The act of obeying the
invitation of the outlaw snake placed the authority Adam held below the
authority of the snake/serpent/satan. Adam and Eve now had knowledge of
both good and evil, but with no control over the evil. Evil entered
their life.
