Adam and Eve are the first humans on earth. They live in a beautiful garden -- Eden, Paradise. God entrusted them with the care of the plants and animals. The one proviso being that they don't eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. One day a serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit anyway, appealing to her curiosity. After eating it, she shares with Adam. Immediately the two of them are filled with shame as a flood of knowledge rushes in on them. They try to conceal their crime from God, but he knows. Exiled from the Garden, the two become farmers and raise a family in the wild.
Cain and Abel are their first two children. An outdoorsman, Cain readily presents a lamb for his sacrifice when the time comes. His brother Abel offers the first fruits of his garden. When God accepts the fruit but not the lamb, Cain is furious. He doesn't understand what Abel did better than him, and he lashes out at his brother in a rage, killing him. As God finds out, He banishes Abel, cursing him, but also forbidding anyone to kill Cain out of revenge, which would perpetuate the cycle of violence.
Next is a sequence of narratives, depicting the lives of the prophets, mostly the major prophets. These include Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. Through their stories, the formation, destruction, and exile of the nation of Israel is outlined. The effect is that individual people become heralds of difficult news and are persecuted as a result, as if they had originated these ideas. Because the people do not believe the prophets, they are effectively condemning themselves. God does not appreciate how they treat his prophets, but the prophets themselves receive very little in the way of vindication within their own lifetimes.
