Insight into Adam's sin

"Adam's failure in the task with which he was commissioned includes his permitting entrance into the garden to an antagonistic and unclean being. Although Genesis 2-3 does not explicitly say that Adam's 'ruling and subduing' task was to guard the garden from the satanic snake, this is likely conceptually in mind in light of the following two considerations: (1) the commission in Gen. 1:26-28 to subdue and rule over every creature that 'creeps on the earth'; (2) Eden was a temple in which Adam was placed as a living image of God and as God's priest who was to guard the sanctuary from unclean creatures. Thus, Adam did not rule well because he did not guard the garden, allowing entrance to a foul snake that brought sin, chaos and disorder in to the sanctuary and into Adam and Eve's lives. He allowed the serpent to 'rule over' him rather than 'ruling over' it and, as an obedient priest, casting it out of the garden."

- Gregory Beale, New Testament Theology, pp. 45-46