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[CHRISTOPHER310]

Genesis 3 New International Version (NIV)
The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

[ADVRider]

Most people say of verse 1 (3 as you list it), that the serpent undermined what God did, in fact, say. My version has every where you wrote any.

 

One of my friends said one time, "Did you ever think about the fact a snake spoke and Eve understood it"? Or was it a thought he projected? Either way, Eve talked back to the animal!

 

A man I know who has an advanced degree in theology and public policy and who is well versed in Hebrew says the intent in the original where God said, "of every tree in the garden you may eat," means in feasting you may feast, whereupon he says in his book that God told Adam and Eve they had an "unlimited menu of choices," except one. One thing God reserved for Himself. So, they had total freedom within God's rule where He only kept one thing off-limits. Freedom is defined and circumscribed by God Himself, not by humans independent of God. The latter leads to bondage and destruction.

 

It is interesting that in verse 4, the serpent directly contradicts what God said about dying if they ate of the fruit. Those who go their own way are always going to be at odds with God and be liars, just as the father of liars is seen here for the first time. He told her "you won't die." Then, he picques her interest further, based on the notion that it is God who is lying, instead of the serpent, by saying she'll be like Him, "knowing good and evil." The serpent is really trying to get Eve to believe God is somehow unfairly holding back something greater than just not eating the fruit; it's the knowledge that comes with it. So now, he has maligned God in Eve's eyes. Instead of being the God who had given them everything, He is now the selfish God who withholds good things, so she thinks. Satan is saying, "God doesn't want you to be like Him," when in reality, we will never be like Him in our being. That was the sin of Lucifer; he wanted to be, and tried to be, like The Most High, but couldn't be. So in complete rebellion, he is trying to corrupt man and get them to follow him, still wanting the glory that only belongs to God.

 

The serpent does fail to mention that God is the only One who can handle the knowledge of good and evil within Himself without being corrupted by it. He is the only incorruptible being. Not a Hebrew scholar myself, but I would strongly suspect the word know here implies experience, taste, dabble with good and evil, meaning that once human beings play with evil, they become corrupted with spiritual death as the result. I suppose there are some who believe this is all a metaphor, but it is clear humans are not divine like God and cannot handle evil inherently and remain uncorrupted. Verse six mirrors the passage in the epistles of John where it says the love of the world consists of the "lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life." And no man can say he is tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, but each man sins when he is drawn away by his own lust (or corruption).

 

So the big lie here I think is twofold: God is a bad God because He withholds good things and man is good (inherently) because he is not affected by evil or evil does not exist. But of course, we know Jesus later said the serpent was the father of lies, and this is the biggest one: to malign God and His words. God was not withholding from Adam and Eve; He was protecting them from the one thing they could not handle, and that was themselves in a state of independence from God.

[Charles Miles]

I have always been interested that when God gave the rules about not eating the fruit, Eve was not even created yet...or at least was not in the picture at that time.  Satan tempted Eve, not Adam, with the ever so subtle lies about what God did say and even what reason God would have to give such a rule. I wonder if Eve had ever heard a lie before.  In any event, Eve was tricked, lied to, or confused enough to eat of the fruit.....Adam, on the otherhand WAS there when the instructions were given, understood exactly what God said, and still ate the fruit anyway.  Rebellion, disobeying God`s instructions, and doing what Adam wanted, not what God instructed. 

 

Why Adam did it?  We can`t ever be sure of motive here, but it sure has caused a mess down through time with the loss of dominion and the introduction of a sin nature into man that broke the personal relationship with God. 

 

Thank God for His plan to get us out of this treasonous mess and give us an opportunity to re-establish the relationship with Him that was lost in the garden.

 

In Christ,

 

Charlie

[noah22x]

Heeding any other direction than that of God does not turn out well.

 

But He provides Himself a sacrifice.

 

Very important to dive deep into this part of the ocean, but equally important is it to make it back to the shore and view the expanse thereof.

 

That is, view this only and some errant ideas about God can overtake us. View it as a part of the whole Word and we can cling more heavily to God. Through this, salvation through Christ is necessary. God is only capable of a perfect work. "Even the angels long to look into this." Whatever happened here, He is glorified. What does the verse say about the chapter, the chapter about the book, the book about the Scriptures?

 

I'm no theologian, excuse and correct any anything you see as a glaring error.

 

Thank you Christopher, I've walked the whole morning with this.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain...

Noah

[chipped china]

For myself, I have seen woman as more easily deceived than man. Especially in my younger days I tended to believe what people would say to me. Partially because I was brought up seldom having  to deal with with my parents not keeping their word or saying things they didn't mean. And I also wanted to believe certain things were so even if they weren't. So I understand why Eve was deceived. Because Adam loved Eve so much he had to follow her or abandon her to her sin. I don't think he could think of being without her. I  have to chuckle that Adam was so ready to blame the eating on Eve, something I remember happening a lot when I was married. I even got blamed for my husband's infidelity because I gave him too much freedom. 

 

Another thing I've thought about is that God said a woman's desire would be for her husband and he would rule over her. I think both man and woman have somewhat shot ourselves in the foot by not dedicating ourselves to God's way concerning relationships. If I had dedicated myself to God first and then held my husband in higher esteem... loved him more deeply would they not have strayed or sought to drown  themselves in booze or drugs. I probably should have spared you this but all scripture is put there for our learning and these scriptures stirred me to ask personal questions.