Introduction to Chapter 3
Welcome back to the garden in Eden. Chapter 3 is filled with stark contrasts of chapter 2.
- In chapter 2 we were given a view of paradise found. In chapter we will be given a view of paradise lost.
- Chapter 2 ends with Adam and Eve naked and without shame. Chapter 3 end with Adam and Eve being clothed and experiencing deep shame.
- Chapter 2 shows Adam in an intimate relationship with God. Chapter 3 will show us that intimacy being shattered.
- In chapter 2 Adam is given priestly and kingly roles. In chapter 3 he will be stripped of both.
- In chapter 2 Adam and Eve have a marriage in perfect unity with God and each other. In chapter 3 that unity between God and each other breaks apart.
- In chapter 2 God placed Adam in the garden. In chapter 3 God kicked him out.
We don’t know how long Adam and Eve were in garden before they succumbed to temptation. It may have days, or it may have been years. We can speculate all we like, but in the end, the Bible simply does not tell us how long they were without sin. We know Cain and Abel were born after Adam was kicked out, but that does not give us any clues as to when. When Adam and Eve were 130 years old (Genesis 5:3), Eve gave birth to Seth, and she viewed him as a replacement for Abel (Genesis 4:25). Since Seth was likely their next son after Abel’s death, then Abel certainly died before Adam and Eve were 130, but probably not too long before that. So, it is quite possible that Cain and Abel were in their 120’s at the time of their infamous encounter. That said, the longest period of time that Adam and Eve could have been in the garden was approximately 10 years.
Genesis 3:1-3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. 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.’”
There is a lot to unpack in just these 3 verses. I don’t want the lesson to get too big to digest
so I’m deliberately keeping it short. We’ll be paying close attention to the words spoken by each person. What was said is just as import as how it was said. Once again we will see that the traditional way these verses were interpreted overrides the actual way these verses should be interpreted. Unfortunately, this causes us to lose the nuance (subtle shades of meaning) that is occurring.
Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
The word serpent (Strong’s H5175 Hebrew word nachash) which can be translated 3 different ways depending upon the context of the sentence:
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that Satan can masquerade or disguise himself as an angel of light. It makes sense to me that Adam and Eve were talking to Satan who had disguised himself as an angel of light. Disguising himself as a snake makes no sense. In my opinion, Adam and Eve would have fled in terror from a talking snake (with no vocal cords, they can only hiss). The International Standard Version translates nachash as shining one
in that version.4
The phrase more crafty (Strong’s H6175 arum in Hebrew עָרוּם) means crafty, sneaky, scheming, devious, shrewd, sensible.
5 The word can have either positive or negative connotations. In the context of this verse, it portrays cleverness that is opposed to the works of God.6 It is, therefore, used negatively. In context, I prefer the word scheming.
There is a play on words going on that is not evident in English. In Gen. 2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed, the word naked is arom עָרוֹם ayin, resh, waw, mem. (Strong’s H6174). The word crafty is arum עָרוּם Ayin, resh, waw, mem. (Strong’s H6175). The difference is the third letter, waw, where the accent marks are in different places. Naked and crafty are the same word, but pronounced differently and have different meanings. Verse 2:25 is followed immediately by 3:1. This can’t possibly be a coincidence.
The use of the word crafty (arum) in verse 1, and naked (arom) 2:25 being so close together is not accidental and may even be a pun. Theologian Leon Kass affirms that “the root sense of arum, 'naked,' is 'smooth': someone who is naked is hairless, without clothing, smooth of skin. But as the pun suggests, someone who is clever is also smooth, a facile thinker and talker whose surface speech is beguiling and flawless, hiding well his rough ulterior purposes.”7
Some scholars explain that the wordplay between crafty and naked serves a purely narrative function, providing a transition and linkage between the story of the creation of Adam and Eve and the episode of the serpent.8 This linkage is important, since often in the Bible the introduction of a new character happens by means of a circumstantial clause, as is done here with the serpent, marks the beginning of a new episode.9 (A circumstantial clause describes the manner, circumstances, or conditions under which the main clause occurs. For example, in the sentence ‘the serpent was more crafty’ the circumstantial clause ‘more crafty’ indicates the conditions under which ‘man and his wife were both naked’ occurred.)
In Genesis 3:1, the serpent is described as “more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.” This verse can be interpreted in two ways:
- either the serpent (snake) was the craftiest beast of all, or
- it wasn’t a snake at all, but rather an angelic looking being.
The phrase than any (Strong’s H3605) means the whole, all, totality, everything.
10 The phrase encompasses every creature that God created. The word doesn’t mean any
as singular, but all
as in the sum total. The word beast (Strong’s H2416) does not specify any particular type of animal. Instead, it is a generic word that refers to all animals.11 These animals can be wild or domestic, clean or unclean. The word field (Strong’s H7704) can also be translated as land.
It broadly designates the open pasture, country, or a definite portion of ground such as a field.12
To paraphrase this section back together we would get: Now the shining one was sneakier than all of the animals combined of the land that the Lord God had made. There is an implication in this verse that goes unnoticed. The word more is inserted by the translators, and that causes a problem. It is not that God’s creatures are sneaky, and the shining one
was even sneakier, but rather the implication is that God’s creatures were not sneaky by nature, but this particular one was. The verse sets apart this being from all the rest of the creation. It lets us know that the shining one
doesn’t belong here. It has an aspect that the created animals do not have; it is sneaky, and thereby, evil.
While rebuking the Pharisees, Jesus made an interesting statement in John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The devil is a being identified as having no truth in him. That being the case, everything he says is a lie. Since there is no truth in him, he is not even capable of telling a half-truth. We need to keep this in mind when reading these verses. You would be surprised at just how many theologians claim the devil told the truth while talking to Eve. I hold to Jesus’ claim that there is no truth in him. Therefore, it is impossible for the devil to tell the truth, not even a half-truth.
BTW omitting the truth (or deliberately withholding it) is simply another way of telling a lie; it is a form of deception.13
Lying and deceit were the primary weapons that the devil used against Adam. His secondary weapon was to attack Adam’s Achilles heel (vulnerable or weak point), the woman. Adam was already at that point where he would do anything to please Eve. I think that Adam would never say no
to Eve, even when she wanted to go against God’s will. The devil expertly exploited this weakness in Adam’s character.
The devil got Eve to doubt God’s word.
Genesis 3:1b
… He said to the woman, “Did God actually say …
Eve should have realized immediately that’s not what God said at all, but Satan deliberately misrepresents God’s word to undermine Eve’s confidence in it. The root of doubt has started growing in Eve which will ultimately make her think twice
about God had said.
Notice that this starts with the phrase he said. It does not start with the phrase he asked (there is a Hebrew word for asked
). Why am I pointing this out? Because the devil was not asking a question, he was making a statement. Unfortunately, all Bibles make this into question when it isn’t. The word woman (Strong’s H802) means woman, female, wife.
Since up to this point, Eve has only been presented in the role of a wife, it would make sense to translate this word as wife
in this verse as well.14
Did God actually say? This phrase has several interesting components. It starts with the word did (Strong’s H3588 Hebrew word ki). It should never be translated as did.
The word ki introduces a given action or will influence another action.15 The word ki is often translated as because.
Some would add a declarative (declaration) usage giving emphasis to what follows. It further emphasizes that the devil is not asking a question but is about to make a declaration. As such, in this verse ki should probably be translated as for.
The word אֱלהִים - Elohim (Strong’s #430) is generally translated as God.
Elohim (in Gen 3:1) is a common noun, not a proper noun. What that means is that Elohim is not being used as a name (technically, it should not even be capitalized), it is a description (just as God
is not a name but a description). Elohim literally means strength, might, and power(ful).
It describes God’s creative power and might. It can also include his attributes of justice and rulership. The word Elohim (as used in Genesis 1:1) is a plural noun. The underlying reason for the grammatically plural form Elohim is to indicate the all-inclusiveness of God’s authority as possessing every conceivable attribute of power.16 Elohim is plural in the Bible, because in Hebrew, as in ancient Arabic and Latin, respect is conveyed by using the plural (Pluralis majestatis
), sort of like the Royal 'we'
in English, where a president or king refers to himself as we
.17 What I want you to notice is that the devil did not include YHWH. By removing YHWH, he took the personal God out of the equation and tried to make him distant and impersonal by referring to him generically as Elohim. That is probably why the devil used Elohim as a common noun instead of a proper noun.
The word actually is not in the original Hebrew. The word say (Strong’s H559) simply means utter.
It would be better translated as said.
Putting 1b back together, we qet: He said to the wife, “God said …
Genesis 3:1c
… ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
This should not be a question. In ancient Hebrew there was no question mark. The way translators know a question was asked was when an interrogative prefix was used. This was normally accomplished by placing the letter hey
(הֲ) (with the cheteph patach vowel marks underneath it) on one of the words in the sentence.18 When this prefix was used at the beginning or end of a sentence, that sentence became a question. That prefix is not in this sentence, therefore, the sentence is not a question.
The statement the devil was making was that God told them that they could not eat from any tree in the garden. Adam and Eve would have quickly realized that this statement was a lie. (It was also the 1st lie they had ever heard.) That was not what God said at all. Notice that the devil was not twisting God’s words, he was completing contradicting them. By claiming that God said something that he did not say, the devil was completely denying the word of God (what God actually did say).
The devil was employing reverse psychology. Reverse psychology is a persuasion tactic that involves advocating for a behavior that is different than the desired outcome.19 (If I want someone to put their hand in wet paint on a wall, all I have to do is tell them not to, and they will. If there is one sign that people cannot resist, it is “Wet Paint, Do Not Touch!”) Using reverse psychology, the devil said the opposite of what God said. The goal of this trap was to encourage Eve (and Adam) to do what the devil actually wanted. The devil wanted Adam to eat a specific fruit, but started out by claiming that God said he could not eat any fruit. The trap had been set, and Adam and Eve will walk right into it.
Genesis 3:2
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
Adam could have interrupted the discussion at this point and told the shining one to leave. Adam knew the shining one was lying, but Adam did nothing. Instead of putting a stop to what he saw and heard going on, he became an enabler. I think that Adam wanted Eve’s approval more than he wanted God’s approval. It was, and still is, a dangerous place to be.
Eve’s response started out as a simple correction of the devil’s statement; We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. The devil’s lie was very simple (paraphrasing here) God said you can’t eat anything that grows in here.
Eve’s response (paraphrasing here) Yes we can.
She engaged the devil in conversation, which was probably a big mistake.
Eve could have pointed out that that was not what God said and then told him to leave. (Don’t we wish!) Adam could have taken control at this point and told him to leave. Sometimes hindsight can be a terrifying thing.
Genesis 3:3
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.’”
Now we have a problem. God never said they couldn’t touch the fruit. That was a fence
that Adam put around the law. Adam’s fence
gave the devil the foothold he needed to get Adam to sin. Adam’s fence
gave the devil the opportunity to get Adam to question God’s word.
Question: At what point did God tell Adam he would die? In 2:17 God told Adam for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. But in verse 3, Adams fence
changes God’s word to neither shall you touch it, lest you die. In the original command, eating the fruit was the sin. In the now modified command, touching the fruit is the sin. Because of Adam’s fence
Eve is convinced that death will happen if they touch the fruit. As we will see in the next lesson, adding to God’s word proved to be disastrous.
There were 2 trees in the middle of the garden. Did you notice that Eve’s response was not specific? God’s command was very specific. The devil reduced God’s command from being specific to being very general in nature and Eve responded in kind. It shows the danger of not knowing God’s word. 2 Timothy 2:15 states Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Some versions start the verse with the word study.
Now we know why we need to rightly handle the word of truth …
Final thoughts
Unfortunately, we still build fences around God’s word. For example, the New Testament commands believers not to get drunk. What did we do? We added the fence
of don’t drink any alcohol
to prevent Christians from getting drunk. Did we learn nothing from Adam? No, no we didn’t.
The devil loves it when we build fences
around God’s word. It makes his job easier, and he likes it when we assist him in his endeavors. Ultimately, those fences only serve to keep people away from God. The Pharisees never learned that their fences
to prevent people from breaking the Sabbath completely failed. Unfortunately, we never learned the lessons that the Pharisees never learned. The devil laughs at us. It’s time to tear down these fences and start teaching the word of God accurately.
Another trap the devil likes to set is that of everybody’s doing it.
I still get a chuckle out seeing commercials that use the phrase everybody wants, or everybody loves, or everybody is wearing, etc.
Companies have learned the effectiveness of peer pressure to increase sales. It’s not just young people who are susceptible to peer pressure. If people can get other people to sin with them, the sin doesn’t feel as much like sin, because everybody’s doing it.
The devil knows how to use peer pressure and uses it very effectively to get people into a lifestyle of sin. We will see that the devil will use the peer pressure of Eve to get Adam to eat the forbidden fruit.
Below is how I would personally translate the scriptures covered in this article. Please keep in mind that these are my interpretation and not meant to replicate any version of the Bible.
Genesis 1:1-3
1 Now the shining one was more scheming and devious than the sum of the total of all the animals of the land that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “God said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’.”
2 And the woman said to the shining one, “We can indeed eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
3 but God said, ‘Do not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
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