Genesis 3: The Serpent, the Fall, and the Expulsion

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the serpent told the woman. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves. (BSB)

Says “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made.” (3:1, BSB). The noun is הַנָּחָשׁ, the serpent, one of the creatures the Lord God had made. The adjective is עָרוּם, crafty, which has a good sense in Proverbs 12:16, 23 and a bad sense in Job 5:12. The BSB’s more crafty is one English choice; the word is also rendered prudent in those Proverbs verses. It sounds like עֲרוּמִּים, naked, in 2:25. See the Hebrew note. The serpent then said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (3:1, BSB). The Hebrew opens אַף כִּי־אָמַר אֱלֹהִים, Yea, that God said. Whether that opening is a question or an exclamation is open; the BSB makes it a question, and no lean is taken here. In 3:1–5 both the serpent and the woman say God, not the Lord God, the name the narrator uses.

The woman answers that they may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but that about the tree in the middle of the garden God has said they must not eat of it or touch it, or they will die. She omits every and the doubled verb of 2:16, and she adds or touch it. The serpent replies, “You will not surely die” (3:4, BSB), placing the negative before the infinitive absolute that 2:17 had without it. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (3:5, BSB). The phrase כֵּאלֹהִים may be like God or like gods; the Greek is plural, ὡς θεοί. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.” (3:6, BSB). The verb he ate is singular in the Masoretic Text; the Greek and the Samaritan have a plural, they ate. לְהַשְׂכִּיל may mean to make wise or to look at; the BSB has desirable for obtaining wisdom. “And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.” (3:7, BSB). The opened eyes use the verb of the promise in 3:5, and the nakedness answers 2:25. See the Hebrew notes.

Implies This is the first human sin, through which sin and death came to all, as the notes on Romans 5 read it. A real Adam and a real first sin are the shared core set out in the notes on Genesis 2. How that history is told is not reopened here. See the notes on Genesis 2 and on Romans 5.

Uncertain What the added touch shows is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) A protective fence around the command. (2) An exaggeration of what God had said. (3) A sign of growing distrust. Each can be read from the addition; the text does not say why she adds it. Whether the man was present during the conversation is likewise open: עִמָּהּ, with her, and the plural verbs of 3:1–5 may place him there, or the plural may include him as the one first commanded. Whether כֵּאלֹהִים means like God or like gods is also open; see the notes on Let Us in Genesis 1, and the Hebrew cross-reference from 1:26 to 3:22. Whether 1 John 2:16 is an echo of the three descriptions of the tree is not settled. It names “the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16, BSB).

Uncertain How Genesis presents the serpent is treated in the Hebrew note and in the historical note. The options set out there are, first, a real serpent used or spoken through by Satan. Augustine, Calvin and Keil read it so: the grounds are the creature language of 3:1 together with the later identification, and the objection is that Genesis 3 names no other speaker. Second, a symbolic figure in serpent form; Philo calls the serpent “the symbol of pleasure”, and serpent imagery such as Isaiah 27:1 is the grounds, while the objection is that 3:1 calls it a beast God made. Third, a creature only in Genesis, with the identification made later in Scripture; Jubilees and Josephus tell the story of a speaking animal, and the objection is an animal that speaks and contradicts God. No lean is taken here among those readings. That Revelation calls the devil and Satan that ancient serpent is stated as what Revelation says; see the New Testament reading.

Uncertain Ancient comparisons — including the Adapa story, in which a man misses immortal life through ill-advised counsel, and Gilgamesh XI, in which a serpent takes a plant of renewed youth — are treated in the historical note. In Genesis the serpent is a creature God made; the man and woman eat what God forbade, and the way to the tree of life is then guarded. No dependence in either direction is claimed, and this background does not fix the meaning of Genesis 3. See the historical note.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.3.1-Gen.3.7.temptation-and-fall

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.3.1-Gen.3.15.serpent-identity

Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called out to the man, “Where are you?” “I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” “Who told you that you were naked?” asked the Lord God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.” (BSB)

Says “Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (3:8, BSB). They hear קוֹל, voice or sound, of the Lord God מִתְהַלֵּךְ, walking about, in the garden, לְרוּחַ הַיּוֹם. The same participle is used of God's presence among Israel: “For the Lord your God walks throughout your camp” (Deut 23:14, BSB; MT 23:15), and in 2 Samuel 7:6 of God moving about with a tent. The same stem returns as a finite verb in 2 Samuel 7:7 and in Leviticus 26:12: “I will walk among you and be your God” (Lev 26:12, BSB). The BSB’s in the breeze of the day is one English choice; a footnote offers at the breezy (time). The Greek has τὸ δειλινόν, toward evening. They hide בְּתוֹךְ עֵץ הַגָּן, a singular tree that the BSB renders among the trees of the garden. See the Hebrew note.

The Lord God called out to the man, “Where are you?” (3:9, BSB). “I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” (3:10, BSB). “Who told you that you were naked?” asked the Lord God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (3:11, BSB). The Hebrew of 3:11 is and he said; the BSB’s asked the Lord God is its English. And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (3:12, BSB). The word fruit is supplied in the English; it is not in the Hebrew. Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.” (3:13, BSB). The verb is הִשִּׁיאַנִי, deceived me. Each answer ends and I ate. See the Hebrew note, and the note on Romans 7:11.

Uncertain What לְרוּחַ הַיּוֹם means is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) The evening or afternoon breeze, as in the BSB and the Greek toward evening; Keil takes it of the evening, when a cooling wind blows. (2) A wind or storm of the day, a theophany of judgment, with the day as a day of the Lord's coming; the grounds are the noun as storm-wind in other theophanies, and the objection is that the walking setting is calm. (3) The hour of the wind, without further sense. See the Hebrew note.

Uncertain The lean taken here is that the questions draw a confession rather than seek information. The reader already knows of the eating and the hiding, and each answer ends in an admission. Keil reads them this way: God called not because He was ignorant of the hiding-place, but “to bring him to a confession of his sin.” The main alternative reads them as a genuine inquiry, like a hearing, or as a narrative device, since the story does not say what God knew.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.3.8-Gen.3.13.the-lord-god-seeks

So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (BSB)

Says The Lord God says to the serpent that because it has done this, it is cursed above all livestock and every beast of the field; on its belly it will go, and dust it will eat, all the days of its life. The printed wording is the Masoretic Text. The preposition מִן may mark the serpent above the animals in its curse or from among them; no lean is taken here. Only the serpent and the ground are called אָרוּר, cursed; the man and the woman are not. Whether the serpent had another form before the sentence is not said. Dust-eating is used of humbled enemies. “They will lick the dust like a snake” (Mic 7:17, BSB). Isaiah 65:25 has but the food of the serpent will be dust. See the Hebrew note.

God puts אֵיבָה, enmity, between the serpent and the woman, and between the serpent's seed and her seed. One verb, שׁוּף, stands twice: the BSB has He will crush your head and you will strike his heel, and a footnote gives bruise in both clauses. The pronoun הוּא is masculine singular, agreeing with זֶרַע, seed. The Greek has masculine αὐτός with neuter σπέρμα, and uses τηρέω twice. That is a fact of the Greek wording. See the Hebrew note and the Greek note. See also the Romans note on 16:20.

To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (3:16, BSB). The Hebrew is עִצְּבוֹנֵךְ וְהֵרֹנֵךְ, your pain and your conception; the BSB’s your pain in childbirth is one English choice. The same noun for toil returns for the man in 3:17. תְּשׁוּקָה occurs only here, Genesis 4:7 and Song 7:10. Genesis 4:7 has a similar sequence of desire and then rule, with sin as the one who desires. “I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.” (Song 7:10, BSB). The Greek has ἡ ἀποστροφή σου, your turning. See the Hebrew note and the variant note.

To the man, addressed וּלְאָדָם, God says that because he has listened to the voice of his wife and has eaten from the tree, the ground is cursed בַּעֲבוּרֶךָ, because of you. The BSB has And to Adam and through toil. Where the personal name begins is treated in the notes on Genesis 2. The man will eat bread by the sweat of his brow until he returns to the ground, for dust he is, and to dust he shall return. And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the Lord has cursed.” (Gen 5:29, BSB). “All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.” (Eccl 3:20, BSB). See the Hebrew notes.

Implies The death threatened in 2:17 is carried out in the return to dust (3:19) and in 5:5, as the notes on Genesis 2 and on Romans 5 read it. God is the one who subjected the creation (Romans 8:20); see the notes on Romans 8. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.” (Rom 5:12, BSB).

Uncertain The four readings of 3:15, with their grounds, objections and holders, are treated in the Hebrew note and in the historical notes. No lean is taken here among them, and no first gospel reading is adopted. Whether Romans 16:20 alludes to this verse remains open, as that Romans note already reads it.

Uncertain What the desire is, is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) Longing for the husband; grounds: Song 7:10. Keil reads it as a craving “bordering upon disease”. The objection is that Genesis 4:7 is not affection. (2) A desire to master or control him; grounds: the close sequence in 4:7, and the BSB footnote Or You will desire to control your husband. The objection is that three uses are few, and Song 7:10 differs. (3) Turning toward or dependence on him, as in the Greek turning, and as Jubilees 3:24 has thy return shall be unto thy husband. The objection is that the Greek may interpret a rare noun. Whether he will rule over you describes what the broken relation will be, or states an order that God now appoints or confirms, is likewise open, and no lean is taken here. Keil holds that the woman was subordinate to the man from the first, and that his rule was not meant to become despotic. No application is drawn to home or church. 1 Timothy 2:14 is reported for what it says; its application belongs to that letter.

Uncertain Whether bodily death would have come without the trespass is not settled in Genesis 3 alone. Human origins in science are not argued here. Psalm 82:7 is read in the notes on that psalm as like mortals, with like Adam named as the alternative; that lean is not reopened here.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.3.16-Gen.3.19.the-sentences

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.3.15.enmity-and-the-seed

Minor variants

The printed text of this chapter is the Masoretic Text throughout. At 3:16 the Masoretic wording has תְּשׁוּקָתֵךְ, your desire; the Greek has ἀποστροφή, turning. At 3:17 the Masoretic wording has בַּעֲבוּרֶךָ, because of you; the Greek has ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις σου, in your works. At 3:24 the Masoretic wording has one verb whose object is the cherubim, placed east of the garden; the Greek has the man as the object of one verb and then stations the cherubim with a second verb. In each case the Samaritan agrees with the Masoretic wording in the main text. Whether the Greek reflects other Hebrew or the translator's sense is open; no Hebrew is reconstructed here, and no lean is taken on how those readings arose. See the variant notes.

Other Greek differences, named in the textual note, include of the earth for of the field at 3:1 (Swete's 3:1b) and 3:14; from every tree at 3:2; the plural they ate at 3:6, where the Samaritan also has a plural; pluses at 3:9 (the vocative Adam), 3:10, 3:11, 3:14 (on your breast and) and 3:17; γῆ for dust at 3:19; and of delight for Eden at 3:23. The Samaritan adds this at 3:3 and reads to your dust at 3:19; at 3:15 it has he, as the Masoretic Text does. Inner-Greek variants in Alexandrinus and in E are listed in the textual note. Swete numbers English 2:25 as 3:1a and English 3:1 as 3:1b. See the Greek notes and the textual note.

And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...” Therefore the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life. (BSB)

Says “And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living.” (3:20, BSB). The name is חַוָּה, which sounds like חָי, living. The reason uses a perfect verb, הָיְתָה; the BSB’s would be is one English choice. The naming comes after the sentence of death in 3:19. In 2:23 the man had called her woman. The Greek translates the name Ζωή, life. See the Hebrew note.

“And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.” (3:21, BSB). The phrase is כָּתְנוֹת עוֹר, tunics of skin, where they had made girdles of leaves in 3:7. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...” (3:22, BSB). The capitalization of Us is the English style. The sentence breaks off; the BSB marks the break with an ellipsis. See the Hebrew cross-reference from 1:26 to 3:22, and the notes on Let Us in Genesis 1. “Therefore the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.” (3:23, BSB). The verb of sending out is followed by to work the ground, the verb of 2:15. “So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.” (3:24, BSB). The Hiphil וַיַּשְׁכֵּן, caused to dwell, has the cherubim as its object in the Masoretic Text, placed מִקֶּדֶם, east of the garden. The BSB’s stationed cherubim on the east side is one English choice. The second verb of 2:15, to guard, returns here. See the Hebrew note and the variant note.

Uncertain What the naming shows is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) Hope: life after the sentence of death, with the seed of 3:15; Keil sees Adam showing his faith in the promise in the name he gave. The objection is that the verse gives the reason as motherhood, not promise. (2) An assertion of the man's rule (3:16), as in the naming of the animals. The objection is that 2:23 already names her, and naming need not mean rule. (3) An explanation of the name only. The objection is that its place after 3:19 seems chosen. See the Hebrew note.

Uncertain What the garments show is likewise open: provision and covering for shame, or a first sacrifice. Keil reads the garments as mercy, and holds that the act laid a foundation for later sacrifice without making the coats a figure of the robe of righteousness. The text says that the Lord God made garments of skin and clothed them; it does not say that an animal was offered. What the expulsion shows is open as well: judgment, or mercy that prevents life without end in sin, or both. Keil calls it “a punishment inflicted for man’s good”, and Irenaeus says God acted in pity, so that the sin would not be immortal. The cherubim and the east-facing entrance recall the tabernacle (Exodus 25:18–22; 26:31) and the temple (1 Kings 6:23–29). Whether the garden is pictured as a sanctuary, as also asked in the notes on Genesis 2, is open: the shared verbs of 2:15 return in 3:23–24, and the objection is that Genesis 3 names no temple or priest. No lean is taken here, and no typology is drawn. Early readings are gathered in the historical note.

Revelation 2:7 and 22:2, 14 return to the tree of life; Revelation 22:3 says there will no longer be any curse. See the New Testament reading.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.3.20-Gen.3.24.garments-and-exile

New Testament reading

Says Revelation 12:9 has “that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9, BSB), and 20:2 “that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan” (Rev 20:2, BSB). Revelation identifies the ancient serpent as the devil and Satan. Genesis 3 itself names a serpent. That is what Revelation says. See the Greek note.

“I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Cor 11:3, BSB). Paul's Greek shares ὄφις and the verb of deceiving with Swete 3:13, in the compound form. Form agreement is not a claim about which text was used. “And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.” (1 Tim 2:14, BSB). The verse states what 1 Timothy draws from Genesis 3:6–13. No lean is taken on how the passage applies. See the Greek note.

Implies 2 Corinthians 11:3 sets Eve's deception by the serpent in a chapter that names Satan (11:14), and John 8:44 says of the devil, “He was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44, BSB). With Revelation, these imply that the New Testament identifies the serpent of Genesis 3 with the devil. How Genesis itself presents the serpent remains open, as set out above.

Implies “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.” (1 Cor 15:21, BSB). “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Cor 15:22, BSB). Death came through a man, and in Adam all die, as the notes on Romans 5 also read the trespass. See the notes on Romans 5. Romans 5:12, 7:11, 8:20 and 16:20 are already linked and are pointed to rather than argued again.

Says “On either side of the river stood a tree of life” (Rev 22:2, BSB), whose leaves are “for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2, BSB). “To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God” (Rev 2:7, BSB). “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life” (Rev 22:14, BSB). “No longer will there be any curse.” (Rev 22:3, BSB). These return to the tree of life, whose way is guarded in 3:22–24, and to the curse pronounced in 3:14–19.

Uncertain Whether Romans 16:20 alludes to 3:15 is not settled, as the Romans note on that verse already reads it. Whether Revelation 12:17, on the rest of the woman's offspring, echoes 3:15 is likewise open. Galatians 4:4, “God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal 4:4, BSB), Hebrews 2:14, and 1 John 3:8 are later readings associated with 3:15; whether they allude to it is not settled.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.3.1-Gen.3.24.new-testament-reading