THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD
AND EVIL
(Gen 2:15-17)
And
the LORD God took the man [Adam], and
put him into the garden [Heb:
a
garden (as fenced)] of
THE SERPENT AND THE
WOMAN
(Gen
3:1-5)
Now the serpent [Heb: snake (from its hiss)]
was more subtil [Heb: cunning
(usually in a bad sense): crafty]
than any beast of the field which the LORD [Heb:
Jehovah] God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not
eat of every
tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We
may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden [“the tree of knowledge of good and evil”
Gen 2:9], God hath said, Ye
shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And
the serpent said
unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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
[a mingled and thus an evil concoction].
THE WOMAN AND THE MAN
(Gen 3:6,7)
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. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew
[Heb: understood] that they were
naked [nude,
exposed, uncovered]; and they
sewed [works] fig leaves together, and made [works]
themselves aprons.
POINTING THE ACCUSATORY FINGER OF
SATAN (Gk: the
accuser, devil)
(Gen 3:8-13)
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 [people
are symbolized as trees in the Bible, e.g., Psa 1:3]. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and
said unto him, Where art
thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and
I was afraid,
because I was naked; and
I
hid myself. 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? And the man said [pointing his finger and thus blaming] [1,2,3], The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the
tree, and I did eat. And the
LORD God said unto the woman, What is
this that thou hast done?
And the woman said [pointing her
finger and thus blaming], The
serpent beguiled me [Heb:
to lead
astray, delude, seduce: deceive, X utterly],
and I did eat.
(Gen 3:14,15)
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:
And I will put enmity
[Heb: hostility: hatred] between thee and the woman,
and
between thy seed and her seed; it [i.e., the Body of Christ]
shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
(Gen 3:16)
Unto
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow [Heb:
worrisomeness; labour or pain] and
thy conception [Heb: pregnancy]; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy
desire [Heb: in the sense
of stretching out after:
longing /// overflow] shall be to thy husband, and
he
shall rule [Heb:
have
dominion: govern, reign, have power]
over thee.
(Gen 3:17-19)
And unto
Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened
[Heb: listened (with the implication
of obedience)] unto the
voice of thy wife [over
obeying My voice], 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 [Heb:
worrisomeness;
labour or pain] shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou
shalt eat the
herb [i.e., grass, rye,
wheat,
etc.] of the field [originally, we were vegetarians (until
immediately
after the flood: Gen 9:1-3)]; In the
sweat [Heb: perspiration] of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust
thou art
[God to the
serpent: “dust shalt thou eat” Gen 3:14], and unto dust
shalt thou return.
(Gen 3:20-24)
And Adam
called his wife's name Eve [Heb:
lifegiver]; because she was the
mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did
the LORD God
make coats of skins [the
institution
of blood sacrifice for a covering rather than “fig leaves” Gen 3:7], and clothed them. 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 [in
that defiled state of mingled good and evil]:
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the
garden of Eden,
to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove
out the
man; and he placed at the east of the garden of
Eden Cherubims [angels], and a flaming sword which
turned every way, to keep
[Heb: hedge about, guard, protect] the
way [Heb: road] of the tree
of life.
Amen