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 hou... [ Continue Reading ]
III. (1) NOW THE SERPENT. — Literally, _And._ The Hebrew language, however, is very poor in particles, and the intended contrast would be made plainer 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... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL BE AS GODS. — Rather, _as God,_ as Elohim himself, in the particular quality of knowing good and evil. It was a high bait which the tempter offered; and Eve, who at first had answered rightly, and who as yet knew nothing of falsehood, dallied with the temptation, and was lost. But we must n... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE WOMAN SAW... SHE TOOK. — Heb., _And the woman saw_... _and she took,_ &c. 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 in... [ Continue Reading ]
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 unde... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LORD GOD WALKING IN THE GARDEN. — The matter-of-fact school of commentators understand by this that there was a thunderstorm, and the guilty pair hearing for the first time the uproar of nature, hid themselves in terror, and interpreted the mighty peals as meaning the... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO TOLD THEE THAT THOU WAST NAKED? — Adam had given as his excuse that which was really the consequence of his sin; but by this question God awakens his conscience, and makes him feel that what he had described as a want or imperfection was really the result of his own act. And as long as a man fee... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE GAVE ME... — There is again in Adam the same passiveness which we noticed on Genesis 3:6. He has little sense of responsibility, and no feeling that he had a duty towards Eve, and ought to have watched over her, and helped her when tempted. It is a mistake to suppose that he wished to shift the... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THE SERPENT. — As the serpent had tempted our first parents purposely and consciously in order to lead them into sin, he stood there without excuse, and received a threefold penalty. The outward form of the condemnation is made suitable to the shape which the tempter had assumed; but the true f... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THE WOMAN HE SAID. — The woman is not cursed as the serpent was, but punished as next in guilt; and the retribution is twofold. First, God greatly multiplies “her sorrow and her conception,” that is, her sorrow generally, but especially in connection with pregnancy, when with anguish and peril... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO ADAM (WITHOUT THE ARTICLE, AND THEREFORE A PROPER NAME) HE SAID. — Lange thoughtfully remarks that while the woman was punished by the entrance of sorrow into the small subjective world of her womanly calling, man is punished by the derangement of the great objective world over which he was to... [ Continue Reading ]
DUST THOU ART... — It appears from this that death was man’s normal condition. A spiritual being is eternal by its own constitution, but the argument by which Bishop Butler proves the soul to be immortal equally proves the mortality of the body. Death, he says, is the division of a compound substanc... [ Continue Reading ]
ADAM CALLED HIS WIFE’S NAME EVE. — Heb., _Chavvah;_ in Greek, _Zoë._ It has been debated whether this name is a substantive, _Life_ (LXX.), or a participle, _Life-producer_ (Symm). Adam’s condition was now one of death, but his wife thereby attained a higher value in his sight. Through her alone cou... [ Continue Reading ]
COATS OF SKINS. — Animals, therefore, were killed even in Paradise; nor is it certain that man’s diet was until the flood entirely vegetarian (see Note on Genesis 1:29). Until sin entered the world no sacrifices could have been offered; and if, therefore, these were the skins of animals offered in s... [ Continue Reading ]
AS ONE OF US. — See Note on Genesis 1:26. By the fall man had sunk morally, but grown mentally. He had asserted his independence, had exercised the right of choosing for himself, and had attained to a knowledge without which his endowment of free-will would have remained in abeyance. There is someth... [ Continue Reading ]
TO TILL THE GROUND. — This is the same word as that rendered “dress” in Genesis 2:15. Adam’s task is the same, but the conditions are altered.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO HE DROVE OUT THE MAN. — This implies displeasure and compulsion. Adam departed unwillingly from his happy home, and with the consciousness that he had incurred the Divine anger. It was the consequence of his sin, and was a punishment, even if necessary for his good under the changed circumstances... [ Continue Reading ]