Much is said in these texts about the nature of good and evil and what this knowledge really entails. The question of sex before sin is addressed by Nahmanides and characterized as passionless, lustless reproduction. It is described as almost involuntary, just another every day action not prompted by want or desire. Genitals were thought of "like the face and the hands and they were not ashamed of them" (E&A214). The knowledge of good and evil then becomes a conscious will to have sex and the institution of a decision between good and evil. The fact that sex now becomes a product of desire characterizes it as the evil choice, and tarnishes its original purpose of reproduction. The sin associated with sex is far removed from the physical act, and is rooted in the gained capacity to satisfy lustful desire. Almost synonymously, the knowledge of good and evil by Nahmanides is the capacity to fulfill desires.
Maimonides tackles a view that the knowledge of good and evil is humanity's greatest triumph and was strangely given to us as a punishment for sin. Maimonides makes the crucial distinction between knowledge of good and evil and intellect, which he states was originally present in our innocent state. Before the downfall man has the capacity to distinguish between true and false, not right and wrong. After sin man loses the capacity to distinguish absolute truth and is stuck with apparent truths. The terms good and bad reflect apparent truths, whereas true and false reflect absolute truths. We see god, a knower of good and evil, use the word good repeatedly, and untill eating the fruit nothing the humans do is "good." Maimonides gives the clear example of how Eve "saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to the eyes" (E&A 217). This sentance includes newly acquired desires and apparent truths.
Going back to Nahmanides, I so thoroughly appreciated his explanation of the punishmet given to Eve. Finally, someone who does not solely rely on male superiority to justify Eve's punishment! Nahmanides asserts that Eve's submission to Adam is a punished reversal of the order of events that led to Adam's sin. Since Adam sinned due to Eve's command to eat the fruit, now it is her turn to fall under Adam's command. This refreshingly logical reasoning gives great support for Eve's punishment.
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Nahmanides comes the closest of all the readings to a literal interpretation that sticks to the text. The part you liked about the justice of the woman's punishment relies on the accusation of Adam ("because you obeyed your wife ...'). Of course in my view of the text is an etiology, in this case for patriarchy, so the punishment is where the author started from and the story is constructed to justify it.
And, by the way, Nahmanides' description of sex before knowledge is strikingly similar to the ideas of Augustine.
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