And welcome back. I trust you are all doing well? Good, I’m always pleased to hear positive news.
Today I’m going to talk about Chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis. This is the fun one, as we will talk about the Original Sin, the Expulsion from Paradise, and the Curse that God leaves on man and the earth.
Now first I’d like to say, I do try to be objective when I talk about this stuff. But being human, I fail miserably. Anyone who says they are absolutely objective and have no bias whatsoever is lying through their teeth. Hell, even Jesus was biased, but that’s ok.
Secondly, before I start, I’d like to do a quick recap of the first two chapters.
In Chapter 1, (in order) we have:
Day 1
1 Heaven and Earth
2 God moves upon the Waters in the void without form
3 Light without source
4-5 Divides the light from the dark, and starts the rotation of the earth without form.
Day 2
6-8 God creates the firmament and calls it heaven, dividing the water above from the water below.
Day 3
9-13 God commands the earth to grow grass, and seed and fruit bearing plants.
Day 4
14-19 God creates the stars, the Sun and the Moon. And says they are to be used for signs, seasons, days, and years.
Day 5
20-23 God says for the waters to bring for all the moving creatures of the deep, and birds that fly through the air, then tells them to get their groove on.
Day 6
24-31 God tells the earth to bring forth all the cattle and things that creepeth. Then God says to whoever “Let us make man in Our image.” He then makes man and woman at the same time, tells them they have dominion over the earth, and proceeds to tell everyone they are vegetarians.
Day 7 is actually in Chapter 2, verses 1-3. God, after making everything and presumably jotting down a few notes for his divine plan of eternity, takes a nap and then tells everyone that it’s a jolly good nap day, and everyone should do it.
So on to Chapter 2, where we get a second story of creation, starting with Verse 4.
Day 1
4-25 On the day of creation there were no plants, and no animals, for two reasons. There was no water, and no man to tend the earth. But there is mist (water) and God creates man out of Dust, and breathes life into him. He then creates the Garden of Eden, and out of the ground creates the trees and plants, including the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (henceforth referred to as the Tree of Knowledge). He then places Man in the Garden and tells him he can eat anything in the garden, except the tree of knowledge. God then creates all the beast and cattle, and has Adam name them. After none of them seem to strike Adam’s fancy, God puts Adam into a deep sleep, takes a rib, closes him back up, and makes a woman out of that rib. Adam goes “Yay! Mine!” and they are both naked but don’t care.
So that’s the gist of it. If you want to know more, then read the previous articles that talked about these two chapters. The verses, and my responses to them, are there.
Genesis 3--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?
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.
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The Serpent is an interesting character. In terms of mythology, the Serpent is a trickster, a fairly common one at that. Gilgamesh having his powers stolen by a serpent is one example. I would like to note, however, that while many believe that the Serpent is Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, or any other names that refer to the evil one, there is no indication here of that. As far as this seems to be concerned, the Serpent is just a talking lizard.
So the woman… Ok, look, she hasn’t been named yet. Right now it’s just Adam and The Woman, but that’s going to get old fast so I’m going to go ahead and use her name (although I could do an entire article just on her name alone).
So Eve, we can assume that Eve is walking through the garden and comes across this Serpent. (I’m trying very hard not to call it a snake, because it’s not technically a snake yet. It’s more like a lizard right now)
The Serpent says to Eve, “Did God tell you not to eat from that tree?” I imagine he’s speaking in much the same way Eddie Izzard does his impressions.
And Eve replies, “Why yes, yes he did. We can eat from any tree here, but not that one.”
Genesis 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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So here, again, I imagine Eddie Izzard (hilariously funny comedian) saying “Oh… that silly God. You’re not going to die, God knows if you eat from the tree, and good from evil.”
There is something I’d like to point out here. The Serpent says that eating from the Tree of Knowledge will make Eve know good and evil. In other words, good and bad, right and wrong, etc., which means that beforehand, Eve had no knowledge of Right from Wrong. She was essentially naïve, and wouldn’t know if it was wrong to listen to the Serpent.
Genesis 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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.
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.
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So Eve looks at the tree. She decides it’s pleasant to the eyes and should be desired. Not too sure if she wants to eat the tree or hump it, with those choices of words, but she eats the fruit of the tree and feeds it to Adam, who also eats it. Suddenly they go “Holy shit, we’re naked!” and quickly sew some leaves together to make clothes. This is interesting because it goes back to the idea that before eating from the tree, they simply didn’t know right from wrong. They didn’t know it was wrong to be naked, they didn’t know it was wrong to disobey God or that perhaps the Serpent was untrustworthy. But once they did know, they even hid from God when He was walking through the garden.
Genesis 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and 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?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
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.
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When the Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient God walks through the garden, he doesn’t know where Adam and Eve are. So that we have an equal understanding, let’s define those words.
om•ni•pres•ent/ˌämnəˈpreznt/
Adjective:
(of God) Present everywhere at the same time.
om•nip•o•tent/ämˈnipətənt/
Adjective:
(of a deity) Having unlimited power; able to do anything.
om•nis•cient/ämˈniSHənt/
Adjective: Knowing everything.
So with these three words we see that an Omnipresent God is everywhere, and so he should know where everything, including Adam and Eve, is located, regardless of them hiding. An Omniscient God knows everything, including Adam and Eve’s location. And an Omnipotent God should be able to just make them appear right there in front of him. Yet it seems in this verse, he can’t do any of that. He has to ask where they are.
So Adam says he hid, because he was afraid. He was naked, so he hid himself.
God asks, “Why would you hide? And how did you know you were naked?” An Omniscient God would know the answer. Here he does seem to know, as he asks Adam if he ate from the tree that He said not to eat from. Perhaps He’s giving Adam a chance to own up to his mistake, but again, being Omniscient, he should know Adam’s response.
So Adam proceeds to push the blame onto Eve, saying that it was the Woman God had given him, and she gave him the fruit from the tree, and he ate it.
God turns to Eve and says, “What have you done?” To which Eve replies, “It’s all the Serpent’s fault, he confused me.”
Genesis 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
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.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
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;
18 Thorns 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.
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Now we see a string of curses that God lays down for this terrible transgression. He curses the Serpent to crawl on its belly, eating nothing but dust. And he puts enmity, or hostility, between Eve, her children, the Serpent, and the Serpent’s children.
He then curses Eve with terrible pain accompanying the act of bringing life into the world, and that her desires will be her husband’s desires, for he is to rule over her.
And to Adam, because he was foolish enough to listen to his wife, he curses the ground so that it brings forth thorn and thistle, and he must labor intensely for each morsel of bread all the days of his life until he returns to the ground from whence he came.
(But wait, didn’t God say Adam would die the very day he ate from the tree?)
Genesis 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
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:
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.
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Here, Adam finally gives Eve her name. He calls her Eve, because she was the mother of all living. God was kind enough to make coats for Adam and Eve before kicking them out though, so there’s that. Here, again, God says (to someone) that man is become as one of us, and seems to warn them about the dangers of letting them get their grubby mitts on the Tree of Life. So he drives man out, and placed Cherubims and a flaming sword at the east of the Garden of Eden so that man can’t come back for the other Tree.
This story is one of the big ones that I have an issue with, because it sets a certain theme for the rest of the Bible. God is supposed to be all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere, yet he seems to be glaringly blind to what’s right in front of him. If he was all knowing, then he would have known that Adam and Eve would have eaten from the tree regardless of what he said. So why didn’t he put the tree out of reach, say a very high cliff. Perhaps he couldn’t? Which means he’s not all powerful. And if he was everywhere, he would have been right there with the Serpent while he was tricking Eve into eating it and known that she’d fall for it, which means he could have stopped it unless he wasn’t all powerful, everywhere, or all knowing. I’ve been told that God was testing Adam and Eve, but why? Again, all knowing, he knew they would eat from the tree. He also knew the part the Serpent would play, so why even make the Serpent?
In a previous post I compared this to common sense in that I, a mere mortal, have the common sense not to give my child a loaded gun. It’s a very bad idea. Yet this is essentially exactly what God does.
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