1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
3:1-241 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Of all the beasts that God made, the serpent was the most clever.
He said to the woman,
Did God say you shouldn't eat from every tree in the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
The woman said to the serpent,
We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden.
Except for the tree in the middle of the garden. [1]
God said, "Don't eat from it or touch it, or you will die."
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
The serpent said,
You won't die.God knows that when you eat from that tree you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
When the woman saw that the tree was good food, was nice looking, and would make her wise [2}, she picked and ate its fruit.
She gave some to her husband, and he ate it. [3]
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
So they sewed some fig leaves together for aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
Adam and woman heard the voice of God, who was walking in the garden during the cool of the day. [4]
So they hid in the trees.
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
God said,
Where are you? [5]
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Adam replied,
I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked. So I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
God said to Adam,
Who told you that you are naked?
Have you eaten from the tree I told you not to eat from? [6]
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
The woman [7] you gave me, gave me the fruit and I ate it.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
What have you done?
The woman said,
The serpent fooled me, and I ate.
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
God said to the serpent,
You are cursed more than all animals.
From now on you'll have to crawl on your belly and eat dust.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. [8]
It will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.
I will multiply your sorrow and make you suffer in childbirth.You will desire your husband, and he will rule over you. [9]
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Because you listened to your wife [10] and ate from the tree,
I will curse the ground, make thorns and thistles grow, and force you to eat it all your life.
Adam named his wife "Eve" [11] because she was the mother of all the living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
God made skin coats for Adam and Eve.
22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
The man has become one of us [12] to know good and evil.
Now, before he eats from the tree of life and lives forever....
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
There seems to be some confusion here about the two forbidden trees.
The tree in the middle of the garden that the woman refers to here is "the tree of life" (2:9), not the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
The rest of the story assumes the forbidden fruit was from the other tree -- the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Since it does, I will too for the rest of this chapter.
In 2:17 God said that if Adam eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then the day that he does so, he will die. But Adam eats the forbidden fruit and yet lives for another 930 years (5:5).
God figures out that Adam had eaten from the tree of knowledge (How else could he know he was naked?)
Adam blames "the woman" for giving him the fruit. He doesn't even know her name.
God punishes Adam for listening to his wife by cursing the ground, making thorns and thistles grow, to make it hard for him to grow food.
Before this, according to the Genesis story, plants had no natural defenses. The rose had no thorn, cacti were spineless, and nettles had no sting. Foxgloves, oleander, and milkweeds were perfectly safe to eat.
Adam names his wife - Eve: the mother of all the living.
God expels Adam and Eve from the garden before they get a chance to eat from that other tree -- the tree of life. God knows that if they do that, they will live forever. A spooky thought indeed for an insecure god.
Although God told Adam not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (2:16-17), he never told him not to eat from the Tree of Life. God said that Adam would die the day that he ate from the forbidden tree (2:17). Well, Adam ate from that tree (3:6), so why was God worried that Adam might eat from that other tree (the Tree of Life) and live forever?
I don't know if it's okay to post links here, but you can read Clarke's treatise on the subject here: https://presenttruthmn.com/the-present-truth/teachings/serpents-seed/the-serpent-nachash-of-genesis-31/
The word for the serpent ,"nachash", can also mean " to hiss, Whisper a (magic) spell; generally, certainly, divine, enchanter, (use) enchantment," and "shining one/brass and copper". It has an etymological connection to the Urdu Arabic word "Khannas" used in the Quran in surah 114:4 referring to the mysterious "whisperer".
Theologian Adam Clarke thought that the word word referred to a primate, namely an orangutang.
"...And in such an inquiry the Arabic may be expected to afford some help, from its great similarity to the Hebrew. A root in this language, very nearly similar to that in the text, seems to cast considerable light on the subject. Chanas or khanasa signifies he departed, drew off, lay hid, seduced, slunk away; from this root come akhnas, khanasa, and khanoos, which all signify an ape, or satyrus, or any creature of the simia or ape genus. It is very remarkable also that from the same root comes khanas, the Devil, which appellative he bears from that meaning of khanasa, he drew off, seduced, etc., because he draws men off from righteousness, seduces them from their obedience to God, etc. Is it not strange that the devil and the ape should have the same name, derived from the same root, and that root so very similar to the word in the text?..
...We have seen above that khanas, akhnas, and khanoos, signify a creature of the ape or satyrus kind. We have seen that the meaning of the root is, he lay hid, seduced, slunk away, etc.; and that khanas means the devil, as the inspirer of evil, and seducer from God and truth. See Golius and Wilmet. It therefore appears to me that a creature of the ape or ouran outang kind is here intended; and that Satan made use of this creature as the most proper instrument for the accomplishment of his murderous purposes against the life and soul of man. Under this creature he lay hid, and by this creature he seduced our first parents, and drew off or slunk away from every eye but the eye of God..."
For some reason, there is a correlation between eating fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and being naked. Eve ("the woman") and Adam both eat the fruit (2:6). It's not clear the timing of when something...anything...happens upon eating fruit from this tree, but following the verses, their first notion is to wonder about their nakedness (2:7). Within the same verse, they fashion together "aprons" from the leaves of the fig.
Being the first two humans, with no sense of society, interpersonal morality, or any real concept of decency, Adam and Eve are still confound with bodily shame. Why? ..and why immediately after eating the fruit? Are we to presume that it wasn't God who told them they were naked and indecent, but through the consumption of the fruit, it was discovered "evil" to walk around naked? Interesting cosmic fruit there. You'd think it'd instill the innerworkings of humanity to come upon the first bite, but what they received instead was the realization that genitalia are icky and they need to cover up?
That's some weird fruit.
Here's where things really start to get interesting, and where interpretation starts to get off the rails.
It is at this point that we are introduced to the character of the Serpent. We won't be dealing with him for very long, though, unless you're someone who believes that the Serpent and Satan are the same entity, which is a pretty common interpretation amongst Christian Fundamentalist circles, and is a belief that Jews and most Liberal Christians tend not to hold. Interpretations will get weirder, but we'll get there when we get there.
Anyways, this Serpent calls God's bluff about the fruit of the trees. They won't die right after eating it, so I guess you could say the Serpent was right about that. After being served that little truth-bomb, the woman and Adam share some fruit, causing them to realize that they're both waltzing around in their birthday suits.
Along comes God, who is not acting in any way, shape, or form like he's omniscient and omnipresent, as he takes a walk around the garden, where he bumps into those two fruit-munching hooligans in a rather awkward situation. God realizes that the two mortals in front of him really shouldn't know how embarrassing this situation is, and comes to the conclusion that they ate from the forbidden tree.
Adam blames the woman, and the woman blames the Serpent. God, the ever-just judge, punishes everyone involved. How? You may ask?
Well, he strips the Serpent of its legs, which apparently it used to have, AND THAT'S WHY SNAKES DON'T HAVE LEGS!
He then punishes the woman by making childbirth excruciatingly painful, AND THAT'S WHY CHILDBIRTH IS A BITCH!
And then he punishes the man by making weeds sprout out from the ground. AND THAT'S WHY WE HAVE TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME PICKING THOSE DAMN THINGS OUT OF THE GROUND!
For some reason, this whole 'That's why *insert natural phenomenon* exists' kind of story just reeks of pagan mythology, but I can't really put a finger on why exactly right now, wink wink.
Oh, and before I forget, apparently, God separates the seed of the woman from the seed of the Serpent as well, which sounds weird as fuck to any rational person, but apparently, some racists took this whole idea and ran with it. Check this site's page on 'The Two Seed Theory' if you want to know what I mean. I told you that interpretations would get weird.
Anyways, God is so paranoid that Adam and Eve (Yes, that's the woman's name) might discover immortality that he gives them a change of clothes and tells them to leave Eden. He also installs some bouncers outside of Eden just to make extra sure that nobody tries to get in.
Surprisingly, there's no mention of animals suddenly turning carnivorous anywhere in this chapter. Take that, Ken Ham!