In the beginning Adam reported temptation as moderate (5)
I believe the answer is:
abate
'moderate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in the beginning adam reported temptation' is the wordplay.
'in the beginning' indicates taking the first letters.
'reported' shows a homophone (sound like).
'temptation' becomes 'bait' (bait is a kind of temptation).
The first letter of 'adam' is 'a'.
'bait' is a homophone of 'bate'.
'a'+'bate'='ABATE'
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for abate that I've seen before include "Let up or die away" , "Decline" , "Lessen in intensity" , "Die down, slacken off" , "Become less strong like storm" .)