Commentary - Genesis 3:1-7

Bird's-eye view

This passage records the single most catastrophic event in the history of the world after creation itself. This is the account of the fall of man. Here we see the covenantal head of the human race, Adam, tested in the garden through the agency of his wife, who was in turn tempted by the serpent. The temptation itself is a master class in diabolical deceit, beginning with a subtle question designed to cast doubt on God's goodness, escalating to a direct contradiction of God's command, and culminating in a slanderous attack on God's character. The sin was one of unbelief, manifesting itself in disobedience. Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned with his eyes wide open, standing right there with her. The immediate consequences were not the promised godhood, but a sudden and terrifying awareness of their own guilt, shame, and alienation from God, which they pathetically attempted to cover with a self-made religious solution of fig leaves. This event plunged the entire human race and the created order into sin and misery, and set the stage for the entire drama of redemption that unfolds throughout the rest of Scripture.

The core of the temptation was the allure of autonomy, the desire to be "like God, knowing good and evil," which is to say, determining for oneself what constitutes good and evil, apart from the Creator's revealed word. This is the foundational sin from which all other sins flow. The failure of Adam, the first federal head, necessitated the coming of the second and final Adam, Jesus Christ, who would face the tempter and triumph, and who would provide a true covering for our shame, not of flimsy leaves, but of His own perfect righteousness.

Outline

Context In Genesis

Genesis 3 is the great pivot of the entire Bible. Chapters 1 and 2 describe God's perfect creation, a world without sin, death, or corruption. God creates man in His own image, places him in a paradise garden, gives him a glorious task (the cultural mandate), and provides him with a helper, his wife. The world is declared "very good." The relationship between God and man, man and woman, and man and creation is one of perfect harmony. There is only one prohibition, a simple covenantal test concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3 narrates how that perfect world was broken. This chapter explains the origin of sin and misery, and it provides the necessary backdrop for understanding everything that follows. Without Genesis 3, the call of Abraham, the exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Law, the sacrificial system, and ultimately the cross of Jesus Christ make no sense. This chapter is the diagnosis of the human condition for which the rest of the Bible provides the cure.

Key Issues

The Serpent's Lie and Man's Folly

We must be clear about what is happening here. This is not a fable or an allegory about the loss of innocence. This is a historical account of a cosmic treason. The stakes were absolute. Adam was not just a private individual; he was the federal head of the human race. He stood as our representative. His obedience would have meant continued life and blessing for all his posterity. His disobedience, as we see here, meant sin and death for all his posterity. The serpent, who the rest of Scripture identifies as Satan (Rev. 12:9), knew exactly what he was doing. He was not just trying to trick one woman into eating a piece of fruit. He was mounting an assault on the King of creation by attacking the King's appointed vice-regent, Adam. His goal was to usurp God's authority and to drag God's image-bearers down into ruin with him. The strategy he employs here has become the standard template for every temptation we have faced since.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

The serpent is introduced as one of God's creatures, a "beast of the field." But this is clearly no ordinary animal. This is the devil, utilizing the form of a serpent. His defining characteristic is his craftiness, a twisted and malevolent wisdom. His first move is not a direct command, but a question, and it is a question loaded with poison. "Indeed, has God said...?" He feigns surprise and skepticism, inviting the woman to stand in judgment over God's Word. And notice the lie embedded in the question. He wildly exaggerates the prohibition: "You shall not eat from any tree." God had said they could eat freely from every tree but one. The serpent paints God as a cosmic killjoy, a stingy tyrant who delights in withholding good things. The first step in temptation is always to make us doubt the goodness of God.

2-3 And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.’ ”

The woman's first mistake was engaging the serpent in conversation at all. Her second mistake is revealed in her answer. She corrects the serpent's exaggeration, which is good, but then she misquotes God's command. She adds the phrase, "and you shall not touch it." God never said that. This small addition reveals a shift in her heart. She is no longer relating to God's command as a simple, clear word from a loving Father. She has added a layer of legalistic superstition to it. This addition makes God seem more arbitrary and severe than He is, and it gives the serpent a new angle of attack. When we begin to add our own rules and regulations to God's law, we make it fragile and easy to dismiss.

4 And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!”

Having planted the seed of doubt, the serpent now moves to a direct, frontal assault on God's Word. This is the first flat denial of God's truth in the history of the world. God had said, "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17). The serpent says, "You surely will not die!" He calls God a liar. He sets his own word up as a higher authority than the word of the Creator. Every sin we commit is, at its root, a decision to believe this same lie. We believe that we can disobey God's commands and that the consequences He has threatened will not actually come to pass. It is a gamble against God's own integrity.

5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Here the serpent attacks not just God's truthfulness, but His very character. He accuses God of having an unworthy motive. "God is holding out on you. He is keeping you down." The serpent claims God's prohibition is not for their good, but is rooted in divine insecurity. God, he says, knows that this fruit will elevate them, make them His equals. The temptation is to become "like God." But they were already like God, created in His image. The temptation here is for a different kind of god-likeness, a god-likeness of autonomy. To know good and evil in this sense is not simply to be aware of them, but to be the one who decides and defines them. It is the desire to be the ultimate source of moral authority in your own life. This is the very essence of pride and rebellion.

6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

The temptation works. The woman now evaluates the situation based entirely on her own perceptions, not on God's command. She sees that it is "good for food" (lust of the flesh), a "delight to the eyes" (lust of the eyes), and "desirable to make one wise" (the pride of life). Having cast off God's Word as the standard, she trusts her own judgment, and she falls. But where is Adam? The text is explicit: he was "with her." He was not off tending another part of the garden. He was standing right there, the covenant head, the one who had received the command directly from God. He watched the whole exchange. He said nothing. He did nothing to protect his wife or to rebuke the serpent. And when she offered him the fruit, he simply ate. He was not deceived; he sinned in silent, passive, treasonous abdication of his duty. His sin was the greater sin.

7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

The serpent had promised their eyes would be opened, and they were. But they were not opened to a glorious new plane of divine existence. They were opened to their own shame. They suddenly "knew that they were naked." This is not about a sudden awareness of their physical bodies. In the previous chapter, they were naked and not ashamed. Now, their nakedness represents their guilt, their vulnerability, their utter exposure before a holy God. And what is their first instinct? It is not to run to God for mercy, but to hide from Him. They try to solve the problem of their sin themselves. They manufacture a covering out of fig leaves. This is the first act of self-righteousness. It is the first humanly-devised religion. And like all such religions, it is a flimsy, pathetic, and utterly inadequate attempt to cover the shame of sin.

Application

The story of the fall is our story. The serpent's strategy has not changed one bit. He still comes to us and asks, "Has God really said?" He still encourages us to doubt God's goodness, to deny His warnings, and to question His motives. And the central temptation is always the same: the allure of autonomy. The desire to be our own god, to define good and evil for ourselves, is the engine of all our sin. We want to be the captain of our own ship, the master of our own fate.

We also see our own pathetic response in Adam and Eve's fig leaves. When confronted with our sin, our natural instinct is to cover it up. We manufacture our own righteousness through good works, religious observance, moral effort, or blaming others. We sew together flimsy coverings and hope they will hide our shame from God. But they never will. The only adequate covering for sin is the one that God Himself provides. He would later clothe Adam and Eve in garments of skin, which required the shedding of blood. This pointed forward to the final sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The first Adam failed the test, plunged us into ruin, and tried to cover himself with leaves. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, passed the test in the wilderness, took our ruin upon Himself on the cross, and clothes us in the perfect, unassailable garment of His own righteousness.