Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 3

Now the serpent.— Literally, And. The Hebrew language, however, is very poor in particles, and the intended contrast would be made clearer by rendering, “Now they were both naked (arumim)... but the serpent was subtil (arum), more than every beast of the field.” This quality of the serpent was in itself innocent, and even admirable, and accordingly the Septuagint translates it as prudent. However, this quality was used by the tempter to deceive Eve; for, it has been remarked, she would not be surprised on finding herself spoken to by so sagacious a creature.

If this is so, it follows that Eve must have lived in Paradise long enough to have learned something of the habits of the animals around her, though she had never studied them so earnestly as Adam, not having felt that lack of a companion which had made even his state of happiness so dull.

And he said unto the woman.— The leading point of the narrative is that the temptation came upon man from without, and through the woman. Such questions, therefore, as whether it was a real serpent or Satan under a serpent-like form, whether it spoke with a real voice, and whether the narrative describes a literal occurrence or is allegorical, are better left unanswered.

God has given us the account of man’s temptation and fall, and the entry of sin into the world, in this actual form; and the more reverent course is to draw from the narrative the lessons it was evidently intended to teach us, and not enter upon too curious speculations. We are dealing with records of a vast and hoar antiquity, given to man when he was in a state of great simplicity, and with his intellect only partly developed, and we cannot expect to find them as easy to understand as the pages of modern history.

Yea, hath God said...?— There is a tone of surprise in these words, as if the tempter could not bring himself to believe that such a command had been given. Can it really be true, he asks, that Elohim has subjected you to such a prohibition? How unworthy and wrong of Him! Neither the serpent nor the woman use the title—common throughout this section—of Jehovah-Elohim, a sure sign that there was a thoughtful purpose in giving this appellation to the Deity. It is the impersonal God of creation to whom the tempter refers, and the woman follows his guidance, forgetting that it was Jehovah, the loving personal Being in covenant with them, who had really given them the command.

EXCURSUS C: ON THE DURATION OF THE PARADISIACAL STATE OF INNOCENCE.

The Bereshit Rabba argues that Adam and Eve remained in their original state of innocence for six hours only. Others have supposed that the events recorded in Genesis 2:4 to Genesis 3:24 took place in the course of twenty-four hours, and suppose that this is proved by what is said in Genesis 2:4: that the earth and heavens, with Adam and the garden, were all made in one day, before the end of which they suppose that he fell.

This view, like that which in Genesis 1 interprets each creative day as a similar period, really amounts to this: that the narrative of Holy Scripture is to be forced to bend to an arbitrary meaning placed upon a single word, drawn not from its meaning in Hebrew, but from its ordinary use in English. More correctly, we might venture to say that the use of the word day in Genesis 2:4 is a Divine warning against such a willful method of exposition.

Read intelligently, the progress of time is carefully marked. In Genesis 2:6 the earth is watered by a mist; in paradise there are mighty rivers. Now, mist would not produce rivers; and if there were mist in the morning and rain in the afternoon, a long period of time would still be necessary before the falling rains would form for themselves definite channels. A vast period of time must have elapsed between the mist period and that in which the Tigris and Euphrates rolled along their mighty floods.

And with this the narrative agrees. All is slow and gradual. God does not summon the Garden of Eden into existence by a sudden command, but He planted it, and out of the ground He made to grow such trees as were most remarkable for beauty, and whose fruit was most suitable for human food. In some favored spot, with soil fertile and fit for their development, God, by a special providence, caused such plants to germinate as would best supply the needs of a creature as feeble as man, until, by the aid of his reason, he invented those aids and helps which the animals possess in their own bodily organization.

The creation of full-grown trees belongs to the realm of magic. A book that gravely recorded such an act would justly be relegated to the Apocrypha, for the God of revelation works by law, and with such long ages of preparation that human eagerness is often tempted to cry, “How long?” and to pray that God would hasten His work.

And next, regarding Adam. Placed in a garden, two of whose rivers—the Tigris and the Euphrates—seem to show that the earth at his creation had already settled down into nearly its present shape, he is commanded to dress and keep it. The inspired narrator would scarcely have spoken in this way if Adam’s continuance in the garden had been only a few hours or days.

We find him living there so long that his solitude becomes wearisome to him, and the Creator eventually affirms that it is not good for him to be alone. Meanwhile, Adam is himself searching for a partner. In the hope of finding one, he studies all the animals around him, observes their ways, gives them names, discovers many valuable qualities in them, and makes several of them useful to him, but still finds none among them that meets his needs.

But when we read that Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field, we must see that this careful study of the creatures around him must have continued for a long period before it could have resulted in their being thus generally classified and named in Adam’s mind. Eventually, Eve is brought, and his words express the lively pleasure of one who, after repeated disappointments, had at last found that for which he was searching. “This,” he says, “this time is bone of my bone.”

How long Adam and Eve enjoyed their simple happiness after their marriage is left untold, but this naming of the animals at least suggests that some time elapsed before the fall. Though Adam had observed their habits, he would scarcely have given many of them names before he had a rational companion with whom to converse. For some, indeed, he would have found names when trying to call them to him, but only for those that seemed fit for domestication. The rest he would pass by until there was someone to whom to describe them. Thus, Eve seems to have known something of the sagacity of the serpent.

She, too, as well as Adam, recognized the voice of Jehovah walking in the garden (Genesis 3:8); and the girdles spoken of in Genesis 2:7 seem also to indicate, by their elaboration, that the guilty pair remained in Paradise some time after the fall. The indications of time are, however, less numerous and definite after the creation of Eve than before. But certainly, Adam was for some considerable period a denizen of Paradise, and probably there was a longer time than is generally supposed spent in innocence by him and his wife, and also some delay between the fall and their expulsion from their happy home.

You shall be as gods. —Rather, as God, as Elohim himself, in the particular quality of knowing good and evil. It was a lofty enticement that the tempter offered. Eve, who at first had answered correctly and still knew nothing of falsehood, dallied with the temptation and was lost.

However, we must not comment too severely on her conduct. It was not an ignoble desire that led her astray: she longed for more knowledge and greater perfection. She even wished to rise above the level of her nature. But the means she used were in violation of God’s command, and so she fell.

And, as usual, the tempter kept the promise to the ear. Eve knew good and evil, but only by feeling evil within herself. It was by moral degradation, and not by intellectual insight, that her ambitious wish was fulfilled.

And when the woman saw ... she took. —Hebrew: And the woman saw ... and she took, etc. In this, the original form of the narrative, we see the progress of the temptation detailed in a far more lively manner than in our version. With awakened desire the woman gazes upon the tree. The fruit appears inviting to the eye, and possibly was really good for food. The whole aspect of the tree was beautiful; and, besides, there was the promise held out to her that it possessed the mysterious faculty of developing her intellectual powers. To this combined influence of her senses without and her ambition within she was unable to offer that resistance which would have been possible only by a living faith in the spoken word of God.

She eats, therefore, and gives to her husband—so called here for the first time—and he eats with her. The demeanour of Adam throughout is extraordinary. It is the woman who is tempted—not as if Adam was not present, as Milton supposes, for she does not have to seek him—but he shares with her at once the gathered fruit. Rather, she is pictured to us as more quick and observant, more open to impressions, more curious and full of longings than the man, whose passive behaviour is as striking as the woman’s eagerness and excitability.

The eyes of them both were opened. —This consciousness of guilt came upon them as soon as they had broken God’s commandment by eating of the forbidden fruit; and it is evident from the narrative that they ate together, for otherwise Eve would have been guilty of leading Adam into sin after her understanding had been enlightened to perceive the consequences of her act. But manifestly her deed was not without his cognizance and approval, and he had shared, in his own way, her ambition of attaining to God-likeness. But how miserably was this proud desire disappointed! Their increased knowledge brought only shame. Their minds were awakened and enlarged, but the price they paid for it was their innocence and peace.

They sewed fig leaves together. —There is no reason for supposing that the leaves were those of the pisang (Musa paradisiaca), which grow ten feet long. Everywhere else the word signifies the common fig-tree (Ficus carica), one of the earliest plants subjected to human use. More remarkable is the word sewed. The Syriac translator felt the difficulty of supposing Eve acquainted with the art of needlework, and renders it, “they stuck leaves together.” But the word certainly implies something more elaborate than this.

Probably some time elapsed between their sin and its punishment; and thus there was not merely that first hasty covering of themselves which has made commentators search for a leaf large enough to encircle their bodies, but sufficient respite to allow for something more careful and ingenious; and Eve may have used her first advance in intellect for the adornment of her person. During this delay they would have time for reflection, and begin to understand the nature of the change that had taken place in their condition.

Aprons. —More correctly, girdles.