Summary
September 4, 2024 – Genesis 3:1-7
After Adam and the woman are brought together by God in a primordial marriage, there begins a first dialog with a fourth inhabitant of the garden, the serpent. Although the serpent is compared to the beasts of the field, ancient symbology identifies the serpent with progress in chronological time (shedding its skin), retention by memory, and it therefore inhabits a subconscious niche between animal and human subconsciousness. The dialog begins between the serpent and the woman, and is described in the original Hebrew as the woman was naked with the serpent, as in no obstruction between them. The dialog with the serpent is therefore a conversation occurring not out in the garden but inside the woman’s mind.
The subconscious niche can be seen as an emergent property of the woman’s reason untempered by the maturity of wholesome moral formation in obedience toward God. The woman becomes aware of her ability to reason and communicate subtly, that is, with guile. As she does so, she forms a perception of her position above the beasts, but beneath God, and misses the important point that she exists for the purpose of ascending to God. She poses a question to herself whether God said “Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”, and in this question she sows a seed of doubt about God’s authority. Will her high self-regard for the development of her subtle reasoning and communicating powers yield to her self-restraint and an embrace of the higher wisdom of obedience to God? As we are told in Proverbs 16:18, pride goeth before a fall.
In the next verse, the woman explicitly recites God’s command and warning, and then in the voice of the serpent directly contradicts this command, and for good measure, she begins to suspect that God has been using the tool of verbal subtlety to deceive she and Adam. She imagines her false “god” as deceitful, and therefore worthy of being put to the test of her new found subtlety in reason. While her testing via reason could lead to greater wisdom, this will only happen if the test standard for truth is that which we know to be from God. Since she has confused God with her deceitful “god”, she further confuses the objective truth of the distinction between good and evil for a subjective version that relies on the mortal power of assertion over others.
The woman’s confidence in her reason grows further and persuades her senses to view the forbidden fruit as desirable for food and beauty and wisdom. Uncritical trust in her reason leads her to elevate these sensual wonders over spiritual fidelity to God’s will. She emboldens herself not only to eat the fruit, but to share this tragic meal with Adam, who accepts it. During this shared meal of spiritual stupefaction, Adam is for the first time referred to as the woman’s husband. They consummate their earthly marriage through indulgence in the sensual consumption of sin, which leaves them forever hungry for spiritual nourishment. As their eyes are opened, the vision of one inseparable flesh is shattered. They are now aware of their nakedness (“subtlety”) toward each other, and hastily contrive garments to cover themselves. Since trust has been lost, deception naturally ensues.
Bible Study Notes
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