When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a
delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took
from its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her,
and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they realized they were
naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths.
And they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the
day's breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from Yahweh God's
presence among the trees of the garden. Then Yahweh God called to the man,
saying to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the
garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. And so I hid myself."
And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the
tree in the middle of the garden, from which I directed you not to eat?" And the
man said, "The woman that you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit
from the tree, and I ate it." Then Yahweh God said to the woman,
"What is this that you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived
me, and I ate."
Yahweh God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any cattle and
more than any field animal. On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all
the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and
between your descendants and her descendants. They will strike at your head, and
you will strike at their heel."
To the woman he said:
"I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing. You will bring forth
children in pain, but your desire will be for your husband. And he will dominate
you."
Then he said to Adam:
"Because you have listened to your wife's voice and have eaten from the
tree that I directed you about, saying, 'You will not eat from it,' the ground is
cursed because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will
yield thorns and thistles for you. And you will eat the plants of the field, by the
sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground. For you
were taken from it. You are dust, and to dust you will return."
Now the man called his wife's name Eva, because she was the mother of
all the living. And Yahweh God made garments for Adam and his wife out of
skins, and he clothed them. Then Yahweh God said, "Look, the man has become
like one of us, knowing good from evil. And now, lest he stretch out his hand and
take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever:"
Therefore Yahweh God sent him out away from the garden of Eden to
cultivate the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out, and he
placed the cherubim at the east side of the garden of Eden, and he placed
a flaming sword that turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life."
At the end of chapter two, we are left with the statement that at the beginning of Adam's and Eve's lives on earth, they "were both naked, and they were not ashamed." There was a youthful innocence about them, and the nudity was a portrayal of that innocence. Before the conclusion of the creation process, Adam and Eve were blessed and told to "be fruitful and multiply." Even as they and were given supremacy over the animals, they were told to reproduce. Sexual reproduction among human beings was surely no afterthought on God's part. Adam's and Eve's nudity represented a spiritual innocence, a lack of the "knowledge of good and evil."
It is not necessary that the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil be a magic tree. On the
contrary, it appears more likely that this was merely God's first teaching tool. Created in God's
image, humanity was given free will. Adam and Eve would become able to recognize the
difference between what was like God and what opposed God. They had been given the ability
to choose between following their true spiritual nature, which was God's, or their physical (or
fleshly) nature. In short, they could choose between good and evil, and every human being after
them would have that choice.
God wanted to teach humanity many things. In fact, he planned from the beginning to
call out some as "chosen people" to carry his message--to teach mankind what God is like. That
same plan called for a sacrificial system to teach the rudiments about that other concept of
sacrifice-- the kind of sacrifice that Abraham had to make-- the giving up of something, someone
so dear. Even before the laying down of creation, God had Jesus in view, to teach us everything
about his own nature, which we should seek.
But how to get the ball rolling? The lessons God would teach us would progress from the
most simple to the most complex. The most complex lesson was Jesus' coming, death, and
resurrection. Jesus was perfect. His nature was to do God's will, as a true son of his Father. He
was to be the very embodiment of God's message to humanity. The Torah and Prophets would
teach a simpler form of this message. Paul calls the Torah our "schoolmaster unto the Anointed
One." When humanity reached adulthood, metaphorically, Jesus would come. But while we
were still children, unable to understand the deeper aspects of his nature, we would have the
Torah. But even before that, there were lessons.
This first of lessons was the most basic. What is godly, and what is not? God merely
designated a tree, saying, "Don't eat from that tree." It was a simple directive--a test that sooner
or later Adam was bound to fail. Each time Adam chose NOT to eat from the tree, he learned
nothing, for he was merely doing the only thing he knew to do. Perhaps he was unaware even of
the greatness of the power of choice. But when he and Eve chose to eat the fruit, they
knew good from evil--because THEY HAD JUST DONE SOMETHING EVIL. God
provided a simple direction, and offered a simple punishment, which Adam and Eve knew they
deserved. The first lesson was complete. Greater lessons about good and evil would come later.
Verse one starts out by saying that among all the field animals ("beasts of the field"), the
"serpent" was the craftiest one. Like the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the appelation
"serpent" was probably given to the animal after this account, to describe its character. What do
we know about the serpent? Well, what we know is quite surprising.
First, it was an animal. Second, as an animal it was crafty. This was not a supernatural
ability. It is presented by the author as a purely natural phenomenon. Its craftiness is compared
to that of other animals. There is nothing supernatural or amiss here. It is not presented as
surprising that the animal known as "serpent" was crafty.
Third, when the animal speaks, it does so with a natural voice. Eve is not surprised that
the serpent should speak. It is not described as speaking in an unearthly voice; it merely speaks.
In other words, in all likelihood the serpent speaks with vocal cords. We do not know whether
this was the first meeting between humanity and the serpent's race, but neither its appearance nor
its voice are surprising. Nor does the animal forbode evil.
Fourth, after the deception, the animal itself is punished, along with a sentence on a string
of its descendants (lit., "seed").
The thing which is perhaps surprising is that the presence of "Satan" is mentioned
nowhere. The serpent's abilities are described and reacted to as natural abilities. The animal is
punished, which implies that it knew what it was doing. This is not the case of the spirit being
Satan possessing a dumb animal. The animal, by means of its own crafty nature, causes Eve to
question what she was taught about the tree. It isn't even called "evil." What it does is to
question the substance and meaning of what God said.
The serpent, a natural animal, does not tell Eve that she should eat the fruit. In fact, it
does not actually suggest that Adam and Eve eat the fruit. The entire conversation between Eve
and the serpent may have merely revolved around what exactly God taught. Perhaps it was not
the first of such conversations. Nevertheless, there is no mention of Satan here. In much later
passages, the term "serpent" ("reptile") is used descriptively of anyone (including Satan) with a
crafty character. But THIS serpent was not Satan.
Another point which has been argued back and forth for years has to do with the nature of
the serpent's deception of Eve. Did it lie to her? That depends on what God meant when he told
Adam about the tree:
And Yahweh God directed the man, saying, "You may freely eat from
every tree of the garden. However, you will not eat from the tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil, for you will die in the day that you eat from it."
What God tells Adam (and him alone, for Eve had not yet been created) is simple. Don't
eat from one particular tree. He doesn't threaten Adam in any way. If Adam interpreted, "you
will die" as a reference to physical death, surely he thought the tree to be poisonous. God
restricts Adam in no way whatsoever. He is free to eat from the tree if he so chooses. However,
if he eats from that certain tree, there will be consequences. This is more like a warning than
threatening. I imagine God telling Adam, "Don't stick your head in fire, or you will surely die."
There was a warning; a consequence attached itself to that warning. Can you see the difference
between the way God said it and, for example, "If you eat from the tree, I will kill you?"
Now we can see what did happen when Adam and Eve ate from the tree. They did not
physically die. However, they immediately lost that natural innocence which was illustrated in
their unashamed nudity. They felt naked. They felt ashamed. They had died in a
spiritual sense. This will be reviewed some when we come to "the punishments."
If we can accept a spiritual sort of death, the death of their innocence, how can the
serpent's questions and statements be interpreted?
"Did God say...." This is merely a question. What does Eve actually know about what
God told Adam? For all we know, it was Adam who taught Eve the things that God had spoken
to him about the tree. We can see by part of Eve's reply that she did not correctly recall what
God had said. She rightly recollects that she and her husband are not to eat the tree's fruit, but
she also believes (wrongly) that even to touch it would bring the "death" upon her.
"Surely you will not die." If God was talking about this inner sort of death and if the
serpent was referring to physical death, then the serpent was not lying here either. It was
definitely being deceptive, to say the least, and it clearly avoided explaining what it meant
compared to what God meant. However, the serpent may very well have told the truth here as
well.
"God knows that ... you will be like God, knowing good from evil." The serpent could
not have been lying here either, for this is precisely what happened. In that one respect and
in that respect only, Adam and Eve became like God when they ate from the tree.
Beforehand, they did not understand the distinction between "good" and "evil." They had neither
done nor seen anything they could call "evil." But afterward, they surely did know the
difference. Here also, the serpent seems to have been deceptive, deliberately withholding the
reason why Eve would know good from evil after eating from the tree. Imagine someone telling
you that he has knowledge of a drug that will cause the one who partakes of it to be completely
free of any pain (s)he is feeling; of course, he doesn't reveal that he is talking about taking a
massive dose of cyanide! True, yes, but not exactly informative.
Imagine a relationship so close to God that you could walk and talk with him freely,
every day if you so chose. As Christians, it is in some sense possible for us to have this again.
But Adam and Eve had it from the start. Yet their friendship with God was replaced by fear
when they ate from the tree. Adam does NOT say that he fears God's punishment. The reason
for his fear is clear: "because I was naked." For the first time, Adam experienced guilt, and it
scared him. According to Paul (1 Tim 2, 1 Cor 15), what happened was ultimately Adam's
responsibility. He was the one who received the teaching directly from God. He had this
knowledge longer. He was NOT tricked; he ate from the tree full well knowing what he was
doing. And it is Adam whom God addresses when he "arrives."
"Who told you that you were naked?" Equivalently, "Why do you feel ashamed?" The
next inquiry is logical, "Did you eat from the tree?" God knows the answer. OF COURSE, he
ate from the tree. Both of them ate from the tree and realized that they were naked. God wasn't
trying to elicit this fact on account of lack of knowledge. Rather, part of the first lesson still
remained. Adam and Eve needed to realize their responsibilities for their actions. They needed
to fully own up to what they had done.
Adam passes the buck twice. "The woman that you gave ... she gave
me fruit from the tree, and I ate it." His passing of the buck to God was secondary. Perhaps he
merely wanted to remind God that Adam had never eaten from the tree BEFORE Eve
had come along. Ultimately, Adam blamed his wife and partner. But Eve didn't force Adam to
eat any of the fruit. She handed some to Adam, and he scarfed it down unquestioningly.
Perhaps Eve would do better. "What is this that you have done?" She immediately
blames the serpent. "Well, there was this animal I was having a conversation with. He confused
me." Hmm ... Eve fails to accept her responsibility as well. Perhaps this failure to admit their
own culpability was what resulted in their ultimate punishments.
The serpent, being an animal, has no such excuse. It cannot "pass the buck."
First, God deals with the serpent. From now on, all of its race will be regarded as cursed.
For all we know, its kind perished in the flood or before. The curse is to suffer defeat in
everything. The Hebrew metaphors "on your belly" and "eating dust" have been construed so as
to imply that the animal--and all of its descendants--were made into snakes. However, these are
mere metaphors of defeat. Furthermore, the serpent's power of speech was not taken away. Its
crafty animal intellect was not removed. No, the passage does not mention the physical removal
of the animal's legs. It is merely cursed with animosity and defeat.
This is what is intended in verse 15 as well. There will be a continual conflict between
humanity and the serpent's species. You, your race, will "strike at" them; they will strike at your
descendants, too. No victory is promised to humanity. No end to the struggle is forecast. The
lives of the members of this species will be no fun from here on.
This verse has readily been interpreted, since Irenaeus I believe, to refer to the coming of
the Messiah. However, not only did the Jews never reckon it so, but also the NT never cites this
verse as being fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. Some point to Jesus' being "born of a woman,"
but this is only a declaration of humanity. (John the Baptist was "born of a woman." Paul says
rightly that we all are "from woman.") Plus, if the "seed" (descendant) of Eve is a literal
descendant, then it is impossible to so construe the "seed" of the serpent. Would there be a
specific animal that Jesus would fight? No. That is why Satan has been forced into this passage.
There are numerous prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament, but this is not one of
them. The serpent itself is punished because the animal itself is culpable. What it is cursed with
is perpetual animosity with the human race, as long as its species should live. Its species is today
extinct.
Just as the serpent was punished for what it did, Eve was punished for what she did. Eve not only ate from the tree but also pursuaded Adam to do what he knew was against God's will. She had the lesser knowledge, but because of her relationship to Adam, she was able to convince him to eat from the tree, which God had told him not to do. Therefore, her pain was increased. If "in childbearing" is taken as "and conception," she may have been made to give multiple births. At any rate, in punishment for wrongly taking a superior position over someone with greater knowledge, she is subjected to Adam for as long as she lives.
As for Adam, he will no longer have the luxury of picking fresh fruit from the trees of the garden. Instead, he will have to forage and till the soil. For several generations the ground was cursed, making his work even harder. (The curse was removed after the flood, q.v. Gn 8:21.) Like many punishments in the OT, the consequences of his sin would extend for several generations and in particular would last as long as he lived. "Until you return to the ground" is a reference to Adam's origin. He alone was taken from the ground. His fitting punishment is to slave away at cultivating that very ground.
These punishments are individual. They should not be construed as applying to all serpents, all women, and all men. They are punishments to specfic beings for specific actions that they took. As Paul says in Romans, we are responsible for OUR OWN actions of imperfection and wrongdoing. And by our own wandering, we share in Adam's sin. While we are in the world, we often encounter the consequences of both our own sins and the sins of others. As God would tell Ezekiel, "The son will not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor will the father suffer for the iniquity of the son." The entire chapter of Ezekiel 18 deals with this subject.
God provides coverings for the nakedness of Adam and Eve, and he casts them out of the garden of Eden. Like God and his heavenly court, humanity now knows good from evil. Adam and Eve were prevented from returning to the Tree of Life, which for all we know would have prevented bodily decay. The human journey and the progress toward the maturity of the race had begun. From this point on, there would be more sin and more suffering. Murder, idolatry, and every form of wrong would plague mankind from then to the present. But the same freedom of choice that allows us to do those things allows us to seek after God and to appreciate him. Without being able to appreciate the wonderful gift we have been given, life as a human being would be forever lacking an intangible but important piece of ourselves. Without God's painstaking teaching process, we might never understand who we are!
© 1995 Big Apple PubCo, Inc.
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