Genesis 3, Evil

God has just finished creating the universe, the earth, animal life and humankind.  It appears to be perfect. But God has prohibited the humans in Paradise from one thing.

Genesis 3:1-5, The Serpent

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'?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.'"

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Eve seems to be adding a restriction, that one is to not to even touch the tree.  Was that implied in the original commandment from God or is Eve adding something on?

Genesis 3: 6-7, Eating the fruit

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. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The serpent was right, in a sense, for Adam and Eve do gain some knowledge of good and evil!

Genesis 3: 8-13, Hiding in the garden

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

For some reason, with their new knowledge and recent actions, the man and his wife hide from God. When confronted, the man gives an excuse. Followed by another.

God, who presumably is all-knowing -- He is, after all, the Creator of all things -- asks some fairly simple questions.  (We will see throughout the Old Testament that it is not good when God asks a question!)

Genesis 3:14-19, The Curse
So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush our head, and you will strike his heel."

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

The original sin, of disobeying God's one proscription, leads to significant consequences. Readers have long debated the specific meanings of these "curses", but the result is clear -- mankind is broken. The work and life they were given previously is now painful, and as we will see throughout the rest of Genesis, these humans also learn quickly to inflict pain on others.

For those of us reading the New Testament, the enmity between the serpent (sometimes called "dragon") and the woman meets resolution in Revelation 12.

Genesis 3: 20-24, Knowing Good and Evil

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

NIV footnotes: "east side" could be "in front". And "Eve probably means 'living'."

And so the man and woman are banished from paradise. We note that there is another tree, the Tree of Life, that this couple are not allowed to see.  (The Tree of Life shows up in the New Testament's last chapter, in Revelation 22: 2.)

Some Random Thoughts

Where is/was Eden? If one reads these chapters as making a serious historical claim (as opposed to a parable of some type) then it is interesting to speculate as to the location described in chapters 2 and 3. The speculation drifts into the realm of science fiction. Here the humans are expelled from this garden and are prevented (supernaturally) from returning. As numerous commentators point out, the memory of Eden, and even a hint of returning to that paradise, will run throughout the instructions and practice of the Old Testament covenant, as the nation of Israel grows after the Exodus.

First published Jan 4, 2023; updated July 29, 2024