3:1__24 _THE COUPLE REBELS AGAINST GOD. The sudden and unexplained arrival of a cunning serpent presents a challenge of immense importance to the human couple. Their choice is to disregard God's instructions, an act of willful rebellion that has terrible consequences for the whole of creation. As a result, God's creation is thrown into disorder, with chaotic effects that result from the disruption of all the harmonious relatioships that God had previously established.
3:1 _The speaking SERPENT is suddenly introduced into te story with minimum detail. Nothing is mentioned about its origin, other than it is one of the beasts OF THE FIELD. Although the serpent is eventually portrayed as God's enemy, the initial introduction is full of ambiguity regarding its true nature. While the brief comment that it is the craftiest of the beasts possibly indicates potential danger, the Hebrew term 'arum does not carry the negative moral connotations of the English words "crafty" and "cunning." Similarly, the sepent's initial question may have sounded quite innocent, although it deliberately misquotes God as saying that the couple must NOT EAT OF ANY TREE IN THE GARDEN. Did the serpent merely misunderstand what God had said? In these ways the subtlety of the serpent's approach to the woman is captured by the narrator. It is notworthy that the serpent also deliberately avoids using God's personal name "Yahweh" ("Lord") when he addresses the woman. Here is another hint that his presence in the garden presents a threat. Although his initial words appears deceptively innocent, his subsequent contradiction of God leaves no doubt about the serpent's motive and purpose. The text does not indicate when or how the serpent became evil. As the narrative proceeds, it becomes clear that more than a simple snake is at work here; an evil power is using the snake (See verse 15). As indicated by God's declaration that "everything he had made . . .was very good" (1:31), clearly evil entered the created world at some unkown point after God's work of creation was completed. Likewise, nothing in the Bible suggests the enternal existence of evil (See ISAIAH 14:12___15; EZEKIAL 28:11__19).
3:2__3 _The woman's response largely echoes the divine instruction given in 2:16__17 regarding the tree of knowledge, although she fails to indentify the tree clearly as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and adds the comment NEITHER SHALL YOU TOUCH IT. These minor variations are possibly meant to convey, even at this stage, that the woman views God's instructions as open to human modification.
3:4__5 _The serpent not only directly contradicts what God has said but goes on to present the fruit of the tree as something worth obtaining: by eating it, the couple will be LIKE GOD, KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL. The ironry of the serpent's remarks should not be overlooked. The couple, unlike the serpent, has been made in the image of God (1:26__27). In this way they are already like God. Moreover, being in the image of God, they are expected to exercise authority over all the beasts of the field, which includes the serpent. By obeying the serpent, however, they betray the trust placed in them by God. This is not merely an act of disobedience; it is an act of teachery. Those who were meant to govern the earth on God's behalf instead rebel against their divine King and obey one of his creatures. YOU WILL NOT SURELY DIE. It is sometimes claimed that the serpent is correct when he says these things to the couple, for they do not "die"; Adam lives to be 930 years old (5:5). Further, their eyes are opened (3:7) and God acknowledge in verse 22 that "the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil." yet the serpent speaks half-truths, promising much but delivering little. Their eyes are ineed opened, and they come to know something, but it is only that they are naked. They know good and evil by experience, but their sense of guilt makes them afraid to meet God; they have become slaves to evil. And while they do not cease to exist physically, they are expelled from the garden-sanctuary and God's presence. Cut off from the source of life and the tree of life, they are in the realm of the dead. What they experience outside of Eden is not life as God intended, but spiritual death.
GENESIS 3:6 _WHEN THE WOMAN SAW. Like all the other trees in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was "pleasant to the sight and good for food" (2:9). The irony is that somehow thye serpent has made the woman discontent with the premitted trees, forusing her desire on this one. Its deadly appeal to her, apparenntly, is its ability TO MAKE ONE WISE (See verse 2:17)__wise, however, not according to the "fear of the Lord" (PROVERBS 1:7; 9:10). SHE ALSO GAVE SOME TO HER HUSBAND WHO WAS WITH HER. The fact that Adam was "with her" and thyat he knowingly ATE what God had forbidden indicates that Adam's sin was both an act of coscious rebellion against God and a failure to carry out his divinely ordained responsibility to guard or "keep" (GENESIS 2:15) both the garden and the woman that God had created as "a helper fit for him" (2:18, 20). The disatrous consequences of Adam's sin cannot be overemphasized, resulting in the fall of mankind, the beginning of every kind of sin, suffering, and pain, as well as physical and spiritual death for the human race.
3:7__13 _Eating the fruit transforms the couple, but not the better. Now ashamed of their nakedness (2:25), they attempt to clothe themselves. Conscious of the Lord God's presence, they hide. When confronted by God regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the man blames the woman, who in turn blames the serpent.
3:9 _THE LORD GOD CALLED TO THE MAN . . . , "WHERE ARE YOU?" Both "man" and "you" are singular in Hebrew. God thus confronts Adam first, holding him primarily resonpsible for what happened, as the one who is the represntative (or "head") of the husband-and-wife relationship, established before the fall (See 2:15__16).
3:14__15 _God addresses the serpent first. Verse 1 declared the serpent "more crafy" (Hebrew 'arum); now God declares it more CURSED (Hebrew 'arur). Indicted for its part in tempting the woman, the serpent will be viewed with contempt from now on. This is conveyed both literally and figuratively by the serpent's going on its BELLY and eating DUST. Having deceived the woman, the serpent will have ongoing hostility with woman, which will be prepetuated by their respective OFFSPRING.
3:15 _While many modern commentators interpret this part of the curse as merely describing the natural hosstility that exists between men and snakes, it hs traditionally been understood as pointing forward to the defeat of the serpent by a future descendant of the woman, and this interpretation fits well with the words and the context. This defeat is implied by the serpent's being bruised in the g=head, which is more serious than the offspring of Eve being bruised in the heel. For this reason, verse 15 has been labeled the "Protoevangelium," the first announcement of the gospel. This interpretation requires that the serpent be viewed as more than a mere snake, something which the narrative itself implies, given the serpent's ability to speak and the vile things he says. While the present chapter does not explicitly identify the serpent with Satan, such an identification is a legitimate inference and is clearly what the apostle John has in view in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2. The motif of the OFFSPRING of the woman is picked up in Genesis 4:25 with the birth of Seth; subsequently, the rest of Genesis traces a single line of Seth's descendants, observing that it will eventually produce a king through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. HE SHALL BRUISE YOUR HEAD, AND YOU SHALL BRUISE HIS HEEL. Some interpreters have suggested that by saying "he and his," the intended meaning is that one particular offspring is in view. Within the larger biblical framework, this hope comes to fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who is clearly presented in the NT as overcoming Satan (HEBREWS 2:14; 1 JOHN 3:8; MATTHEW 12:29; MARK 1:24; LUKE 10:18; JOHN 12:31; 16:11; 1 CORINTHIANS 15:24; COLOSSIANS 2:150, while at the same time being bruised.
3:16 _By way of punishing the woman for her sin of diobedience, God pronounces that she will suffer PAIN (Hebrew 'itsabon) in the bearing of children. This strikes at the very heart of the woman's distinctiveness, for she is the "mother of the living" (Verse 20). YOUR DESIRE SHALL BE FOR YOUR HUSBAND, AND HE SHALL RULE OVER YOU. These words from the Lord indicate that there will be an ongoing struggle between the woman and the man for leardership in the marriage relationship. The leardership role of the husband and the complementary relationship between husband and wife that were ordained by God before the fall have now been deeply damaged and distorted by sin. This epecially takes the form of inordinate desire (on the part of the wife) and domineering rule (on part of the huband). The Hebrew term here translated "desire" (teshuqah) is rarely found in the OT. But it appears again in 4:7, in a statement that closely parallels 3:16__that is, where the Lord says to Cain, just before Cain's murder of his brother, that sin's "desire is for you" (to master Cain), and that Cain must "rule over it" (which he immediately fails to do, by murdering his brother, as seen in 4:48).
3:16 _Similarly, the ongoing result of Adam and Eve's original sin of rebellion against God will have disastrous consequences for their relationship: (1) _Eve have the sinful "desire" to oppose Adam and to assert leadership over him, reversing God's plan for Adam's leadership in marriage. But (2) _Adam will also abandon his God-giving, pre-fall role of leading, guarding, and caring for his wife, replacing this with his own sinful, distorted desire to "rule" over Eve. Thus one of the most tragic results of Adam and Eve's rebellion against God is an ongoing, damaging conflect between husband and wife in marriage, driven by the sinful behavior of both in rebellion against their respective God-given roles and responsibilites in marriage. (See EPHESIANS 5:21__32) for the NT pattern for marriage founded on the redemptive work of Christ).
3:17__19 _God's punishment of the involves his relatioship with the very ground from whch he was formed (See 2:5__7). Because he has eaten that which was prohibited to him, he will have to struggle to eat in the future. Given the abundance of food that God provided in the garden, this judgement reflicts God's disfavor. Adam will no longer enjoy the garden's abuandance but will have to work the ground from which he was taken (3:23; see 2:8__9). The punishment is not work itself (2:15), but rather the hardship and frustration ("pain," itstsabon; 3:16) that will accompany the man's labor. To say that the GROUND is CURSED (Hebrew 'arar, verse 17) and will bring forth THORNS AND THISTLES (Verse 18) indicates that the abundant productivity that was seen in Eden will no longer be the case. Underlying this judgment is a disruption of the hamonious relatioship that originally existed between humans and nature.
3:19 _Further, the man's body will RETURN TO THE GROUND (verse 19), it will die (which was not true of the original created order; ROMAN 5:12). For this reason, the Bible looks forward to a time when nature will be set free from the consequences of human sin; nature will no longer be the arena of punishment, and it will finally have glorified human beings to manage it and bring out its full potential (ROMAN 8:19__22).
3:20__21 _God's words of judgment on the serpent, woman, and man are immediately followed by two obervations that possibly convey a sense of hope. First, the man names his wife EVE (verse 20), which means "life-giver." Second, God clothes the couple (verse 21). While this final action recognizes that the human couple is now ashamed of their nakedness in God's presence, as a gesture it suggests that God still cares for these, his creatures. Because God provides GARMENTS to clothe Adam and Eve, thus requiring the death of an animal to cover their nakedness, may see a parallel here related to (1) _the system of animal sacrifices to atone for sin later instituted by God through the leadership of Moses in Israel, and (2) _the eventual sacrificial death of Christ as an atonement for sin.
3:22__24 _Thecouple is expelled FROM THE GARDEN. God begins a sentence in verse 22 and breaks off without finishing it__for the man to LIVE FOREVER (in his sinful condition) is an unbearable thought, and God must waste no time in preventing it ("therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden"). The TREE OF LIFE, then, probably served in some way to confirm a person in his or her moral condition (PROVERBS 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; REVELATION 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19). According to Genesis 2:15, the man was put in the garden to work it and keep or guard it. Outside the garden the man will have to work the ground, but the task of keeping or guarding the garden is given to the CHERUBIM (3:24). By allowing themselves to be manipulated by the serpent, the couple failed to fulfill their priestly duty of guarding the garden. Consequently, their priestly status is removed from them as they are put out of the sanctuary. The placing if cherubim to the EAST OF THE GARDEN is reflected in the tabernacle and temple, where cherubim were an important component in the structure and furnishing (The Ark of the Covenant).
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