The account, of Souron and the Numenorean men, is a retelling of the Genesis chapter 3 account of the Fall of man. In Genesis the devil, in the form of the serpent, plants an idea in the mind of Adam and Eve - the idea that God was "holding out on them." God was preventing them from eating the fruit, becoming God-like. Once Adam and Eve allowed this distrustful seed to take root, the bait was taken.