The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #4 The Fall

The person created out of the man is a special being, which is not at all less than the one made from. Man at his request got a partner from the Divine Creator. Man received a helper and companion. He at first had the lead, being on his own, able to name things, but now that woman took charge by bringing her thoughts to man. She seemed stronger than man or man was so much willing to listen to her and not to disagree with her.

In the first book of the Pentateuch we come to see how woman got to serve the way everything was to evolve. She with her partner where able to live freely in the Garden of Eden, the place God had provided for them in a world where God had foreseen that all arrangement of heavens and earth where completed.

Genesis 2: 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

It was “a royal garden” or an orchard or plantation where many trees and plants provided for colour and much fruit that God formed man of the dust of the ground.

7 The Lord God also 1made the man 2of the dust of the ground, and breathed in his face breath of life, band the man was a living soul.

Having received the breath of God in his nostrils the 1° Adam became a “soul“, i.e. a living being or living creature. The partner he got from God also was able to enjoy the space God had provided for them to live in. This marvellous garden where complete irrigation was provided was most pleasant and abundant in all things. God Himself loved walking in it in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8).

Genesis 2: 8 And the Lord God planted a garden Eastward in 1Eden, and there he put the man whom he had made.

10 And out of Eden went a river to water the garden, and from thence it was divided, and became into four heads.

11 The name of one is Pishon: the same compasseth the whole land of 1Havilah, where is gold.
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is 1Bdellium, and the Onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same compasseth the whole land of 1Cush.
14 And the name of the [third] river is 1Hiddekel: this goeth toward the East side of 2Ashshur: and the
fourth river is 3Parah)
15 Then the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, that he might 1dress it, and keep it.

God would not have man idle, though as yet there was no need to labour. From every tree in the Garden Adam and Eve could eat, except one. Because that tree could reveal things they should not have to know. It was a tree of conscience (The Living bible: Paraphrased by Taylor) for eating of its fruits would open their eyes to make them aware of right and wrong, good and bad. God warned them that when they would eat of this Tree of knowledge they would be doomed to die (The Torah: the Five books of Moses).

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Thou shalt eat freely of every tree of the garden, 17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death.

Only “whensoever” man would eat from that tree death would be part of his life. By this death God meant the separation of man from God, Who is the life Giver and our life and chief felicity: and also that our disobedience is the cause thereof.

Man and woman feeling no shame, happy to walk around everywhere in that Garden of God, could see that Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Though the given charge that they were not allowed to eat from it made them question the reason. God had given them brains to think and to use for their own good. But the mannin decided to let her ideas go doubting her Maker. She wondered if He did not keep something away from them. Her wandering mind, doubting God’s sovereignty, is presented by a ‘creeping figure’, a ‘serpent’. Like in other Biblical stories we get an speaking animal presented, making people think about certain matters. Eve forced herself to question God and as such became an adversary of God or a satan.

There were many wild beasts in the garden but the thoughts of Eve were more dangerous than they. Her idea of God not giving them everything they needed were cunning, more cunning than any creature (A new translation of the Bible by James Moffatt). The wisest (Sept.) and the shrewdest (Tor.) or the most clever of all the wild beasts was the serpent (AAT: The Bible: an American Translation by J.M. Powis Smith and Edgar J. Goodspeed).

Genesis 3:

1 The woman seduced by the serpent,
6 enticeth her husband to sin.
8 They both flee from God.
14 They three are punished.
15 Christ is promised.
19 Man is dust.
22 Man is cast out of Paradise.

1 Now the serpent was more 1subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made: and he 2said to the woman, Yea, hath God indeed said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Eve doubted that what God said would be true. She questioned if it really could be so.

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, 1lest ye die.
4 Then the (a)serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not 1,2die at all, 5 But God doth know that when ye shall eat
thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, 1knowing good and evil.

The idea that it could be a delight to know as much as God did was very tempting. To be like gods was something What Eve and Adam attracted to try it out. What would it be knowing the difference between good and evil? So when the woman was convinced (Tay.) that to exercise understanding is comely (Sept.) she fell for her charmed eye, desirable for its gift of wisdom (AAT). As though he should say,

God doth not forbid you to eat of the fruit, save that he knoweth that if ye should eat thereof, ye should be like to him.

6 So the woman (seeing that the tree was good for meat, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired, to get knowledge) took of the fruit thereof, and did beat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he 1did eat.

Wanting to be like God was something Adam and Eve pulled over the line to eat from that tree. Them also hoping to get all the knowledge that God has. In Genesis 3 we do find the first act of adversary against God. The one going against the wishes of God or some one who is accusing some one else, is called a ‘satan’ in the Holy Scriptures. With her act of going against the wish of God, Eve brought adversary into the world and ‘satan‘ (in old English: sātan = to plot against; a satan: an accuser, an adversary) became an element mankind shall have to cope with for a very long time. Later many synonyms where given for the word sātan, also many people making it to become a person: the Devil, Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, Lord of the Flies, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Old Nick, The Evil One, Apollyon, Old Scratch instead of seeing the Hebrew meaning of just being an opposer or someone who fights against something or someone, or somebody who counters, or resist strongly. Eve became an opposer by competing against the Will of God and against God Himself, wanting to be like Him or to be an opponent of her Creator.

In doubting of God’s threatenings the mannin or manness Eve yielded to her opposition against God or ‘satan’. By doing what God had forbidden she made an act of disobedience and showed her opinion that she disagreed with or disapprove of God His Will. Adam’s companion knew what God had demanded and her partner also knew the rules. It was her own thinking that offered a rebuttal of what she clearly had heard God telling them. She thought contrary to what God had said that her eyes will be opened. She too wanted to know the things God knows. She too wanted to see the things God sees. She too wanted to become like God.

The opponent of God satan’s chiefest subtlety is to cause us not to fear God’s threatenings. Not so much to please his wife, as moved by ambition at her persuasion Adam accepted the fruit his partner gave him and also ate from it.

As soon as they had given in to their own selfish wishes, also wanting to become like God, they began to feel their misery and got the feeling of shame over them. That feeling of shame and now having knowledge of what is good and of what is bad, made them conscious that they had gone in against the Will of God. Therefore they sought not to God for remedy but wanted to hide from Him, as if He would not know their hearts and would not see them. But God knows and sees everything.

Both their eyes were opened and became conscious that they were naked, they started feeling self-conscious, uncomfortable, shaming themselves for each other. Embarrassed (Tay) with their naked body, they looked for things to gird about them to hide their privities. They tacked together (Rhm: the Emphasised bible: a new translation by J.B. Rotherham) coats of leaves (Bas). The sound of Jehovah God walking up and down in the Garden at the breeze of the day made them afraid of Him, not knowing where to put themself. The fig leaves strung together to cover themselves, for the difference in them, around the hips (Tay), they hid between the bushes and trees.

7 Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they 1knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig tree leaves together, and made themselves 2breeches.
8 Afterward they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the 1cool of the day, and the man and his wife 2hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

God did put them to the test by calling unto Adam and asking him if he had eaten of the tree He had commanded not to do so.

9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 Who said, I heard thy voice in the garden and was afraid: because I was 1naked, therefore I hid myself.
11 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?

Here we also get to see that for the first time the person having done something wrong, did not want to take the responsibility for it himself. He told God that it was the woman who gave him the fruit to eat, but does not seem to remember that he himself could have decided not to eat from it. Also the woman tried to give the fault to some one else. She told God she was deluded, duped (Tor), misled (AAT) and that it was the serpent, manifestation of Satan as a guileful tempter, which deceived her (Lam) or even seduced her (Sept.) Her uttering to be beguiled (AKJV) by the serpent she tried God to believe that she was tricked by the deceit of the snake (Bas) which caused her to forget (YLT) what God had commanded.

12 Then the man said, The woman which thou 1gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, Why hast thou done this? And the woman said, 1The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

The 1° Adam his dishonesty or wickedness and lack of true repentance appeared in this that he burdened God with his fault, because he had given him a wife. Instead of confessing her sin, she increased it by accusing the serpent.

We may find God asking the reason of Adam and his wife, because He would bring them to repentance. No pity of going against the Will of God was really shown. The step of adversary against God was set. Therefore God had to do something. Man had to learn from their action.

* Bible quotes from 1599 Geneva Patriot’s Edition

Preceding articles

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #2 Beginning of mankind

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #3 With his partner