Kids Feedback: Did Adam and Eve Eat Eggs?

My daughter asked me yesterday if Adam and Eve ate eggs. My first response was “yes”, but after realizing that there is no real way to know if the eggs are fertilized or not, I wondered if maybe they didn’t.

I didn’t see this question anywhere on your site, so I told her I would ask.

Thanks so much!

– S.M., USA

Thanks for sending this question! It’s such a privilege to receive questions from children.

Our first step in finding an answer should be to consult the Bible for clues. Let’s investigate exactly what God said about food in the first chapter of Genesis.

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 1:29-31

Since eggs do not fit under the category of seed-yielding herbs or fruit-yielding trees, Adam and Eve did not eat eggs while in the garden of Eden. The sole purpose of eggs at this point was for the increase of life. Nothing ate eggs before sin entered the world.

It’s interesting to remember that God’s command in Genesis 1:29-30 was not a negative command. It begins with a list of what Adam and Eve could eat, so this is a positive command. God listed all the wonderful things He had created just for people to eat.

It wasn’t until after the flood that God mentioned a new list of foods available to people, in Genesis 9:3-4.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Genesis 9:3-4

It is entirely possible, however, that people were eating eggs before the flood, after the world had been changed through Adam and Eve’s sin.

So, to answer your question, Adam and Eve did not eat eggs while they lived in the garden of Eden, before they sinned against God. The Bible does not specifically mention whether some people ate eggs after the rebellion at Eden and before the flood, but God did not officially permit a change in diet until after the flood.

Parents, if your children have any questions, please submit them using the “contact us” section on our main website.