Bible Study: Genesis

Lesson 4: Genesis 3: When The Strength Of Men Failed

Explanation of Genesis Three, Part 2

2. the Conversation

a. "did God really say ... any tree of the garden": the serpent uses only Elohim, rather than Yahweh Elohim, possibly signaling his distance from God. The question is purposely provocative in that it is obviously wrong. Why does the serpent raise such an obviously wrong question? I would suggest it is to cause Eve to lower her defenses. It would allow Eve to correct the serpent with great ease and thus gain a sense of superiority that would make her vulnerable to the serpent's greater strategy. "The serpent's narrative role is to create an ostensible lack from the perception of the protagonist."

b. "the woman said to the serpent ...": As the serpent intended, Eve quickly corrects the serpent, apparently even interrupting him mid thought. However, she then makes a revealing addition herself. She adds that God's prohibition extended not only to eating the fruit, but touching it as well. This exaggeration suggests that Eve is perhaps feeling that God's limitation is unjust or too harsh. Notice as well that now Eve moves to the use of Elohim alone as Satan had done to refer to God. She has also downplayed God's generosity by removing the "every" from the trees that she is allowed to eat.

c. "you will not surely die ...": Now the serpent expressly challenges God's word. He suggests what Eve is probably already thinking, that the prohibition is intended to suppress her and her husband. Eve, her defenses down, her own inner feelings of suppression having surfaced, appears to take the serpent's perspective as well, thus doubting God's goodness. Notice, as Gunkel points out, that the snake never tells Eve to take the fruit, he practices only the art of seduction. Some have suggested that the serpent is disingenuously correcting Eve's statement regarding touching the tree, so that again he is engaging in half truths.

d. "when the woman saw ...": The woman is not tricked by the serpent as she later claimed, rather the serpent did nothing more than direct her attention. It is her own covetous gaze at the tree that results in her disobedience. von Rad is right to note that the "narrator is obviously anxious to shift the responsibility as little as possible from man" (87). The description of the tree from Eve's perspective echoes that of the garden in 2:9, they are both "pleasing to the eyes" and "good for food." In this sense then Eve is reaching out for what she already possessed from God's hand. She also adds, "desirable for gaining wisdom." The interesting thing about the garden narrative is that life and wisdom are separated in the two trees. The suggestion is that wisdom alone without obedience is insufficient to issue in life. In a sense wisdom without obedience is what the 'cunning' serpent possessed.

The decision before Eve can also be looked upon epistemologically. Eve has to decide what her source of authority will be. The choice in reality is not so much between God and the serpent, but between God and herself. She establishes her own experience as the test of authority rather than God's word. She will find out what is true on her own. This isessentially the problem at the root of all unbelief. The garden then was not a "realm of fantasy and escape from moral accountability ... Without adherence to this primal torah, which establishes certain limits of human activity, freedom exceeds its grasp and harmony is replaced by hierarchy" (Brown, 160-61). Self-determination, the desire to live without divine restraints is what is being pursued. It never occurs to Eve that "the coveted autonomy might not be the greatest burden of man's life" (von Rad, 89). Notice that Eve assumes divine prerogative when she saw that the tree was good, as God is said to see and evaluate in Genesis 1. The pattern of seeing, taking and giving is repeated at key moments in Genesis, for example Sarah sees, takes and gives Hagar to Abraham.

The man is apparently present throughout the exchange between the woman and the serpent. Notice that the effects of the disobedience are only felt when he takes the fruit. Adam then abdicates his responsibility to guard the religious purity of the garden. It has been noted that the temptation reverses the order established by God in that the woman listens to the serpent, the man listens to the woman, and no one listens to God.

e. "eyes were opened ...": There are eyes are indeed opened as the serpent predicted, but their vision was a profound disappointment.

f. "covering for themselves": For the first time humans attempt to provide for themselves. There attempt to cover themselves is of course an indication of their new found guilt.

3. summary

a. The major issue in the temptation is unconditional obedience to God's word.

b. Eve is lured into disobedience because she considers herself unfairly limited and because she comes to question the goodness of God. She believes God is withholding something good, equality, from her.

c. This narrative gives us a look at the essence of sin, it is the belief that life without the constraints of God's law is better than obedience. Self-sufficiency and autonomy are at the root of sin.

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