Article 7b - The Book of Genesis – The Adam Cycle - II Chapter 3

By Adrian Mathew

Note: It is recommended to read chapter 3 from the Book of Genesis before reading this article. Re-reading the article is also a suggestion to get a better understating of the text.

Disclaimer – The following article is meant for educational purpose only and not for any commercial purpose.

Genesis 3: With Genesis 3, we turn to what is perhaps one of the momentous chapters in the entire Old Testament: the account of the Fall. With this narrative, Genesis reveals to us the sin that lay at the origins of mankind and, therefore, the root cause of all moral evils with which human history has been inundated.

The Inversion of norms: In the divinely established order in Genesis 1-2, Adam, God’s vice-regent, is to obey God. He is to communicate God’s will to Eve, his spouse, and together they are to rule over the animals. In the course of Genesis 3, the animal (the serpent) is going to rule over Eve, Eve is going to communicate the animal’s will to Adam, and together all three will defy God. Everything is turned upside down.

The serpent: The account begins by focusing on the figure of the serpent (Hebrew nāhāsh), which is described as being “more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made.” The same Hebrew word is also used to describe the great “dragon” known as “Leviathan the twisting serpent” (Is 27:1), who was considered the embodiment of evil and chaos. By the time we reach the New Testament period, the creature in Genesis 3 is explicitly identified as “that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9). As one of the “wild creatures” that God had made (Gen 3:1), despite all the malevolence and power that the “serpent” would eventually display in human history, he was and is not divine, but a created being ultimately subject to God’s will.

The deception: The serpent, whose motivation is not explained, begins his assault on the human pair by casting doubt on the truth of God’s word: “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” After Eve’s response, he proceeds to outright denial of the truthfulness of God’s warning, in effect calling God a liar: “You will not die” (Gen 3:4). The serpent then establishes what we might call a “hermeneutic of suspicion” toward the divine command by suggesting that God’s will for Adam and Eve—which up till now they have had every reason to believe was benevolent—is in fact deceptive, hypocritical, and aimed at suppressing the true realization of Adam and Eve’s potential: namely, divinity itself. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.”

Reasons for the Fall: The text explicitly states why they break God’s command, listing three specific motives. After listening to the words of the serpent, Eve observes that the tree was “good for food”, a “delight to the eyes”, and “desired to make one wise.” Likewise, the power of the fruit “to make one wise” seems to allude directly to the desire to be “like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5)—that is, the desire for some form of divinization apart from communion with God.

It is worth noting here that although Genesis emphasizes Eve’s role initiating the act of eating, she is not alone. According to Genesis, “She took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate” (Gen 3:6). Many translations omit the Hebrew phrase “who was with her” but the phrase is important, emphasizing that Adam is present for this whole dialogue yet has been strangely and culpably silent and passive. He has not performed his priestly duty of “guarding” the garden from threats to its sanctity. Furthermore, together with Eve, he breaks the one prohibition of their covenant relationship to God. In this sense, the Fall is truly that of both Adam and Eve.

Effects of the Fall: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen 3:7). After the Fall, the only particular piece of knowledge Adam and Eve seem to gain from their curious effort is . . . that of their own nakedness! The man and woman’s quest for God-like power and omniscience ultimately leads only to the revelation of their weakness and vulnerability.   

In the midst of this broken covenant situation, a disordered fear of God now enters in. In the wake of the Fall, the Lord has to pursue the human couple, who hide from him: “Where are you? Have you eaten of the tree?” (Gen 3:9, 11). Adam’s response: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree” (Gen 3:12), is a remarkably efficient evasive manoeuvre, simultaneously blaming both his wife and God, who gave her to him. Eve is somewhat less evasive, declaring: “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate” (Gen 3:13). However, neither she nor Adam breathes one word of repentance for the transgression.

God’s Judgement: The result of covenant breaking, here and throughout Scripture, is the experience of covenant punishments (Gen 3:14-19), which are distinctively adapted to the roles and culpability of each of the three parties. Even in the midst of the application of these curses, we may note three signs of God’s mercy on Adam and Eve.

First and foremost, before God ever pronounces a word of punishment toward the man and woman, he promises the eventual triumph over the serpent by the “seed” of the woman. To the serpent, God declares: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). This remarkable verse, which was regarded as a prophecy of the Messiah in ancient Jewish tradition and later referred to as the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”) in Christian tradition, suggests hope for mankind when the “seed” (JESUS CHRIST) will mortally wound the serpent, understood against the ancient Near Eastern context as an embodiment of evil.

Second, although the serpent is cursed (Gen 3:14), neither the woman nor the man is said to be accursed. Instead, with respect to the man, it is the “ground” that is “cursed . . . because of you” (Gen 3:17). Nevertheless, it is true that the man and the woman are both made to feel the effects of the divine curse, though God does not curse them directly. This and the obvious fact that they are not put to death, although Genesis 2:17 (“in the day that you eat of it you shall die”) implies that they deserve death, are clear literary pointers to an expression of divine mercy. In contrast to the widespread and erroneous depiction of the “God of the Old Testament” as unforgiving and vengeful, in the very first pages of Genesis, the Lord is merciful, lessening the punishment deserved by the human pair.

Third and finally, although suffering and death make their entrance into human history, God does not abandon Adam and Eve. To be sure, as a result of the Fall, both the woman and the man will experience suffering. On the one hand, the woman’s “pain in childbearing” will be exceedingly great, and she will experience both desire and domination in her relationship with her husband (Gen 3:16). On the other hand, the man will experience fruitless toil in trying to grow food from the ground that has been cursed (Gen 3:17-18). Remarkably, both of these effects of the Fall are ordered toward family life: the woman will suffer in her body and her relationship with her husband in order to give life to her offspring, and the man will suffer in his labor in order to give life to his family by feeding them. Although directed to the man alone, the final effect of breaking the covenant is death: “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19).

Nevertheless, in the midst of these pronouncements, it is surely significant that the Lord is solicitous for Adam and Eve’s welfare, replacing their inadequate leaf garments with “garments of skins” (Gen 3:21). This verse implicitly depicts the Lord as killing an animal on behalf of the man and woman and, as such, constitutes the very first case in the Hebrew Scriptures of animal sacrifice for sin. From this point of view, God takes the role of acting as priest (something Adam was supposed to do) and supplying the victim—a role that, as we will see, will prove central to the liturgy throughout the rest of the Old Testament. Although Adam and Eve do not experience physical death immediately, another life is offered on their behalf, in order to clothe them and cover the “nakedness” they have experienced as a result of their transgression.

Exile from the garden: At the conclusion of the account of the Fall, the Lord exiles Adam and Eve from the garden sanctuary. The breaking of the covenant means the forfeiture of the priestly role, and Adam is therefore no longer able to dwell in the sanctuary. “Behold, the man has become like one of us . . . and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever . . .” (Gen 3:22). God does not wish Adam and Eve to become immortal in a state of covenant separation from him, thus rendering them permanently alienated. Because the process of dying leads to humility (Ps 90:3-10) and repentance (Ps 90:11-13) and ultimately reconciliation (Ps 90:14-17), it is a natural antidote to the pridefulness and self-sufficiency of sin. Therefore, death is not merely a punishment but also a remedy for sin. As in the later sanctuary of Israel, the cherubim—the first angelic beings mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures—permanently guard the way to the tree of life (Gen 3:24). The rest of the Bible will, in a sense, be a long story of mankind’s journey back to a state in which it can once again eat from the fruit of the “tree of life” and “live for ever” (see Jn 6:51; Rev 22:2).

 

Video Links:

Genesis 3 | The Fall | Bible Study

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bd_bgq_Z5L0

 

References:

The content of the above article has been taken/summarized from an online pdf of the textbook -

A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by Dr. Brant Pitre and John Bergsma

Page numbers: The Inversion of Norms, The serpent, The deception – [pg. 119], Reasons for the fall – [pg. 120], Effects of the fall – [pg. 121], God’s Judgement – [pg. 121], The exile from the garden- [pg. 122]