Eve's Various Children (Grimm)
Division into chapters is editorial.
Life after Paradise: preparing for Gods visit
After being expelled from Paradise, Adam and Eve were forced to build their own home on barren land and earn their bread through hard labor. Adam worked the soil while Eve spun thread. Each year, Eve gave birth to a child, but her children were not alike - some were beautiful and others were ugly. After considerable time had passed, God sent an angel to announce that He would come to inspect their household.
Eve, delighted that the Lord should be so gracious, cleaned her house diligently... Then she brought in her children, but only the beautiful ones.
She washed and bathed the beautiful children, combed their hair, dressed them in clean clothes, and instructed them on proper behavior in God's presence. They were to bow respectfully, extend their hands, and answer questions modestly and wisely.
The ugly children were... not to let themselves be seen. One hid himself beneath the hay, another under the roof, a third in the straw, the fourth in the stove...
The unequal blessings of Eves children
When God arrived, Adam respectfully opened the door. The beautiful children stood in a row, bowed before the Lord, extended their hands, and knelt down. God began blessing them, laying His hands on each child and assigning them noble destinies. The first would become a powerful king, the second a prince, the third a count, the fourth a knight, the fifth a nobleman, the sixth a burgher, the seventh a merchant, and the eighth a learned man. He bestowed His richest blessings upon all of them.
Seeing God's mild and gracious nature, Eve thought she would bring out her ill-favored children as well, hoping He might bless them too. She ran and retrieved them from their hiding places - from the hay, straw, stove, and wherever else she had concealed them. Then came the whole coarse, dirty, shabby, sooty group. The Lord smiled, looked at them all, and said He would bless these children as well. However, their destinies were quite different - they would become a peasant, fisherman, smith, tanner, weaver, shoemaker, tailor, potter, wagoner, sailor, errand-boy, and scullion.
Eve protested this unequal treatment, pointing out that all the children were hers and should receive equal favor from God.
Gods justification for social hierarchy
God explained to Eve that she did not understand His divine plan. It was right and necessary that the entire world should be supplied from her children. If they were all princes and lords, who would grow corn, thresh it, grind and bake it? Who would serve as blacksmiths, weavers, carpenters, masons, laborers, tailors and seamstresses? Each person must have their own place in society, so that one would support another, and all would be fed like the limbs of one body.
'Each shall have his own place, so that one shall support the other, and all shall be fed like the limbs of one body.'
Upon hearing God's explanation, Eve acknowledged her error in speaking too hastily to the Lord. She humbly asked for His forgiveness and accepted His divine will regarding her children's different destinies. Thus, according to this tale, the various social classes and occupations of humanity originated from Eve's children, with God's blessing establishing the natural order of society where each person has their designated role to fulfill.