Genesis 3. The Fall

The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

• Notice how the verses never says “Satan” שָׂטָן or “Devil” (only in Greek διάβολος diabolos)
  • “Now the serpent (nachash נָחָשׁ) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made…”
  • Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 are only verses I have found that identifies Satan as the “ancient serpent”.
  • Possibly Job 26:13, Isaiah 51:9, Ezekiel 28:12-19

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

• Eve does not seem surprised that the snake is speaking to her!
• Why does the serpent approach the woman first?

 ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

• Why did God create man to be unwise? Why not give them the knowledge of good and evil before choosing evil? Could they still show the ability to trust God while also knowing what was evil?

⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

• God made man (naked) and it was “very good”. It was only after they sinned that trust is broken and fear and vulnerability is introduced.

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

God speaks 7 (completeness) times here. We get the “where”, “who”, “what”

1. To man: Where are you?
2. To man: Who told you that you were naked?
3. To woman: What is this that you have done?
4. To serpent: Cursed above all livestock
5. To woman: Multiplication of pain
6. To man: Cursed is the ground
7. To ?: Behold, the man has become like one of us

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you above all livestock
    and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

•  did snake have legs or wings originally? Like a little flying dragon? Makes more sense to me

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

• Interestingly, the word translated “pain” is not the typical Hebrew word for labor pains. The Hebrew word is: עִצָּבוֹן (‘itsabon)
  • It means sorrow, grief, pain. 
  • It is the same word used in the next verse for man’s pain. 
  • Some scholars say that the pain being referred to is Eve’s ongoing hardship of bearing and raising children. 
• Hebrew has other words more naturally associated with birth pain, such as:
  • חֵבֶל (hebel)  sometimes cord, but can mean birth pangs, labor pains ( see Isaiah 13:8; Jeremiah 13:21; Micah 4:9-10).
  • חִיל (hil)  verb meaning to writhe or tremble in labor (Isaiah 26:17; Isaiah 13:8, Psalm 48:6).
• Your desire….he shall rule: Is “desire” positive or negative? What about “rule”?

¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.

• Man now is assigned food that animals were told to eat (green vegetation)

¹⁹ By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰ The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

• We finally get a name for the “woman”, the “helper”, the “wife”: Eve or חַוָּה (Chavah) which means “living”

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

• Genesis 3:22- what does this mean – “Behold the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil”. We know evil existed before the fall due to Lucifer – but how? Did evil always exist? Or at least the potential to choose evil once He created angels with free will. Which means the taking of the fruit was not the first sin overall?
• Why wouldn’t God want them to know good and evil?
• No worries, we will see the tree of Life again in Revelation 22