GEN324 Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Psalm 34:14. The gift of speech, which distinguishes man from all other living creatures, is the most vital instrument in the evolutionary process of civilization.  At the same time, it is also a most formidable weapon for the destruction of society. In the words of Proverbs: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Proverbs 18:21.  The positive and negative potentials of speech are reflected in the opening chapters of Genesis.  Two quotations of the statements of each of the principal actors in the drama of the Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, and the serpent, are recorded in the Bible. Adam’s first spoken words proclaimed the establishment of the family unit as the basis of civilized society [this and subsequent verse].  On the other hand, in his second statement, Adam disclaimed responsibility for his own wrongdoing by placing the blame on Eve Genesis 3:12.  The first recorded words of Eve conveyed a sense of pious submission to the will of God, who had forbidden the “Fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden” Genesis 3:2-3 In her second statement, Eve, like Adam, sought to escape punishment, blaming the serpent for her transgression Genesis 3:13.  The serpent, portrayed as the incarnation of evil, used from the very beginning its power of speech to express blasphemous innuendoes and to question the motive of God’s prohibition of the fruit Genesis 3:1.  In its second statement, the serpent openly accused God of harboring sentiments of jealousy Genesis 3:5. The rabbis regarded this verse as history’s first slanderous expression and used it as an illustration of the frightful consequences of slander. Adam and Eve were deprived of their immortality. The serpent was condemned to become an object of man’s deep loathing Tanchuma, Bereshit 8. The frequency with which the Bible denounces gossip and slander attests to the persistence of this habit in society. Gossip is motivated by malice, arrogance, love or mischief, idle garrulity, and boredom. People who would normally shrink from inflicting physical injury on anyone else many have no scruples about slinging poisonous verbal arrows at their fellowmen. BLOCH 148-9