Chuck Larsen

The Serpent drew Eve into a discussion about the rightness of God’s instructions regarding the eating rights of humans in the garden of Eden. Her fist mistake was allowing the discussion to happen, because the next thing is that Satan, having an open ear, presented his great temptation and demeaned God’s good intentions for them and suggested that God was keeping something good from them. Eating of that forbidden fruit would make them like the rest of the heavenly beings including God himself, who knew good from evil. But it’s the lie “you will not surely die” that was the clincher. There will be no consequences and all your curiosity will be satisfied and you’ll no longer be naïve little children. By eating of the fruit, you will leave the estate to which you were intended with all the good things God wanted for you and step out into a new realm, a realm that will make you like all the other heavenly beings. The offer was to become like Angels! The reality is that they would become like demons, the fallen angels.

So, the woman began to look things over to decide for herself. The first thing that she noticed was recorded in Genesis 3:6a. It tells us that “…the woman saw that the tree was good for food…” Most children’s books on the Bible suggest that the fruit was an apple. A picture of an apple with a bite taken out of it is the illustration of Eve’s sin in the Garden. But we don’t know that it really was an apple. A blogger did a good job describing this. He said that the confusion of this fruit with the apple may be due to the similarity of the two words in the Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate. The word evil in Latin is Mali. The word for apple is Mala. But in the original Hebrew the words are not even close.

I’m not sure you can tell something is good for food by just looking at it. It seems like Eve saw something that convinced her it was edible. Several commentators observed this and suggested that the Serpent, Satan, took a bite of the apple to show her how good it was. Or maybe she saw animals eating it. One internet blogger said, “Keep in mind that mankind was not permitted to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but God did not give any warning to animals. It is possible that an animal, perhaps even the serpent, took some of the fruit and ate before Eve so that she could see that this fruit was good for food.” I can imagine Satan taking a big crisp bite from the fruit and smacking his lips and saying, “This is delicious!” Then not seeing any ill effects Eve was again moved to think about eating the fruit herself.

After having questioned Eve about the instructions that God gave them regarding eating of the trees, Satan now turns to an out-right lie. He tells Eve according to Genesis 3:4, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’” According to George Whitefield, what Satan is telling Eve is, “It is all a delusion, a mere bugbear, to keep you in a servile subjection.”^[1] Yea, I know. I had to look up the word “bugbear” as well. Here’s what Webster says about it:  it is “…an imaginary goblin or specter used to excite fear.”^[2] Don’t you find it interesting that although Eve left out the word “surely” in her reply “lest you die,” Satan put that “surely” back into the equation. Satan reverses the certainty. God said “be certain” that you will die and Satan says “be certain” that you will not die! Pink suggests that Satan might have even shown her that there was nothing to be afraid of. He says, “Then he (Satan) denied that there was any danger in eating the fruit. First, he had by implication slandered God’s character; and now he told a downright lie. If, as we believe was the case, he had himself eaten of the forbidden tree in the woman’s presence, then his action would lend color to his falsehood. It was as though he said, ‘You need not hesitate. God is only trying to frighten you. You can see for yourself the fruit is quite harmless, for I have eaten it without suffering any ill effects.’”^[3]

For the first time a lie, an untruth, a falsehood, is introduced into the experience of man. Exell elaborates on this: “Now crookedness, illusion and deceit began their career. The false in all its forms and shades is traceable to this first lie. All ignorance—all error—all superstition—all base fear—all inward treason of heart, took their rise here. It poisoned the moral blood, degenerated the race, and introduced every hideous deformity and foul impurity into the human family and species.”^[4]

Could it be that Satan was telling Eve, and Adam, that they were way too precious for God to let them die? They were the epitome of God’s creation and His most precious possession. He would never “kill” them because of a simple disobedience? It’s interesting that Jesus knew his destiny was to “die” on the cross for all the sins of the world from Adam and Eve to our day and beyond. In Jesus’ wilderness temptation, Satan tells Jesus something similar. “Your are the Son of God. Go ahead and throw yourself off of the high mountain. Nothing will happen to you. You are too special.” Boteler says, “He (Satan while tempting Jesus) suggests this brilliant and daring way of winning the people en masse instead of the slow and painful way that had been set before him. Perhaps he (Satan) used the same old sneer that he used in the garden of Eden—“You shall not surely die.”^[5]

^[1] Whitefield, George. 1999. Selected Sermons of George Whitefield. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^[2] Merriam-Webster, Inc. 2003. In Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary., Eleventh ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc.

^[3] Pink, Arthur W. 2005. Gleanings in the Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity. Logos Bible Software.

^[4] Exell, Joseph S., and Thomas H. Leale. 1892. Genesis. The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary. New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

^[5] Boteler, Mattie M. 1915. Sermon Notes from the Ministry of Jesus. Cincinnati, OH: Standard.

When Satan asked Eve if God told her not to eat of the trees of the Garden of Eden, Eve replied, “yes, we can eat the fruit of the trees.” She left out the “freely” part from God’s words to Adam, “you may freely eat of all the trees of the Garden.” Then, as if she had remembered something she added in Genesis 3:3, ^“But God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” She seemed to have understood the prohibition properly. Many commentators said she went too far and was the first “legalist” in adding prohibitions that God did not legislate. She said not only should you not eat of that tree, but you shouldn’t even touch it. Hughes takes this view and says, “Eve magnified God’s strictness—’Just touch the tree, and zap!—you’re dead!’ Her comment suggested that God is so harsh that an inadvertent slip would bring death.” Then he uses a common illustration to explain what he means. This is something we can relate to. “A father says to his young daughter, ‘You and your friend Katie have been too noisy—so Katie will have to go home.’ Then his daughter runs to her mother crying, ‘Daddy says I can’t ever have Katie over again!’”^[1] He concludes that when we don’t like a prohibition, we will magnify its strictness.

I think Pink is more accurate on this issue. He says, “…we do not agree with those who charge her with adding to God’s word in verse 3. For while the ‘neither shall ye touch it’ was not distinctly expressed in Genesis 2:17, nevertheless it was clearly and necessarily implied. How could Eve eat of the fruit without touching it? The one-act requires the other.” Pink then points out Jesus’ instructions following the sermon on the mount where he made it clear that murder begins in the mind with hatred. Adultery begins in the mind with lust. So, Pink concludes, “Eve, then, was quite right in concluding that the divine commandment forbidding them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil included not touching it, for the act of eating involves not only desire and intention but also touching, handling, plucking, and placing the fruit in the mouth.”^[2]

Now, what about the short phrase, “Lest you die.” She left out another word that is often pointed out. God said you shall “surely” die. Exell is one of the strongest to argue that Eve diminished the words of God. Speaking of leaving out “surely” and replacing it with “lest,” he says that her words contain “An expression which implies a sort of chance, a contingency, a bare possibility; what might happen, or might not happen; what might happen soon, or might not happen for years. It is thus she puts a denunciation as express, as explicit, as language can furnish…^[3] Even Spurgeon, the great preacher, seems to agree that Eve was lessoning the force of God’s words. He said, “Error commences in little departures from truth”.^[4]George Whitefield says similar things in his sermons. In fact three out four resources I looked at said that Eve was introducing doubt into God’s proclamation of “certain” death. The most frequent comments on Eve’s answer to Satan are best summed up by Benson, who says, “She also added the words, ‘neither shall ye touch it,’ though God had not required this. So she subtracted from God’s permission and added to His prohibition.  In the third place, she downplayed the penalty for disobedience. God had said, ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,’ but Eve softened this to ‘lest ye die.’”^[5] Duffield also agrees. He says, “The sharp point of the Spirit’s sword was dulled, suggesting that there was only a possibility that they might die.”^[6] My point with all these quotes is that Eve gets an unfair rap by the commentators. They add ideas that are not actually contained in the text itself. Again, Pink takes more kindly approach to understanding Eve. He quotes from Gill, who agrees with him: “Gill also states that Eve’s employment of the ‘lest’ is not at all conclusive that she expressed any doubt.” So, Pink concludes, “We therefore prefer to leave it as an open question.”  He also adds, “Many have supposed she was toning down the Lord’s ‘thou shalt surely die.’ They may be right, but we are not at all sure. ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry’ (Ps. 2:12) is obviously not the language of uncertainty.”^[7]

^[1] Hughes, R. Kent. 2004. Genesis: Beginning and Blessing. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

^[2] Pink, Arthur W. 2005. Gleanings in the Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity. Logos Bible Software.

^[3] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis. Vol. 1. The Biblical Illustrator. London: James Nisbet & Co.

^[4] Spurgeon, C. H. 1964. The Interpreter: Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

^[5] Benson, Clarence Herbert. 2003. Biblical Faith: Doctrines Every Christian Should Know. Biblical Essentials Series. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

^[6] Duffield, Guy P., and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave. 1983. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology. Los Angeles, CA: L.I.F.E. Bible College.

^[7] Pink, Arthur W. 2005. Gleanings in the Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity. Logos Bible Software.

In Genesis 3:1 Satan asks Eve the question, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the Garden”? In Genesis 3:2, she answers him; “And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.’” Kissling notes, “As often observed, the serpent approaches the person who had only received the commandment of God at second hand. The command to not eat of the tree was given to the man prior to the creation of the woman. What is often lost on contemporary readers is that the man was there with the woman during the entire conversation and does not utter a word.”^[1] You would think that person to whom God had given the instruction regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, would have been ready to speak up. But he didn’t. He let Eve continue the conversation with the serpent.

I don’t think Christendom (not Christianity) has disparaged women from any biblical passage more than this one. But Roop warns us that “The narrative does not tell us why the confrontation happens between the serpent and the woman rather than the snake and the man. Tradition has suggested that the serpent came to the woman because of her weakness, or because the woman was evil. The narrative states none of those. We should likely assume that the man and the woman are free and responsible together.”^[2] One of the more interesting, and to me the more insulting passages come from the Apocrypha. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 25:23-24, a non-canonical book from the Protestant perspective, has a pretty low opinion of women, based on Eve. It says, “Low spirits, gloomy face, stricken heart: such is a spiteful wife. Slack hands and sagging knees: such is the wife who does not make her husband happy. Sin began with a woman, and thanks to her we must all die. Do not let water find a leak, nor a spiteful woman give free rein to her tongue. If she will not do as you tell her, get rid of her.” It’s because of statements like this that the wise post-apostolic fathers excluded some books from the Bible.

The first part of Eve’s answer was good. “Yes,” she said, “we can eat the fruit of the trees in the Garden.” But it was limited and did not represent the gracious generosity of the God of Eden. Pink observes, “The Lord had said, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.’ Eve’s omission of that word ‘freely’ was both significant and ominous—indicating that the generosity of the divine provision was not influencing her heart as it should have.”^[3] I see that in my own attitude sometimes when I come to the dinner table. I get confused and think that it was my own hard work and discipline that brought this food to the table and from the human perspective that might be true, but the actual provision of our food is not something we can produce ourselves. Maybe, like us, Eve was looking at the secondary cause for having food to eat, like picking it from the trees. She has forgotten that it is all the gracious provision from God. Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts….”

^[1] Kissling, Paul J. 2004–. Genesis. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

^[2] Roop, Eugene F. 1987. Genesis. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.

^[3] Pink, Arthur W. 2005. Gleanings in the Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity. Logos Bible Software.