E2 Modern Biblical Commentary
The Book of Genesis, Chapter 3
The third chapter of Genesis introduces the concept of sin. Sin is disobedience of the word of God, but what exactly does that mean? We get to dig into this issue a bit in this chapter.
Overview
The story of the third chapter of Genesis is very straightforward, but it is also a very essential story. Adam and Eve both sin because they both eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. God's only request of mankind (which only consists of them) to this point was to not eat the fruit, yet because of their own shortsighted desires and actions, they did anyway. God's punishment for this was expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Five Key Verses
Genesis 3:5 - For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
This verse is the voice of Satan in the form of a serpent, or of the embodiment of temptation and evil. It should be noted here that the serpent is not lying to Eve, but he uses his words in such a way to encourage Eve to directly oppose the word of God.
As with many sins, the encouragement to sin comes from those outside of us. Often, we sin on the whim of a moment, after an interaction with another who encourages us to do it, intentionally or no. This is exactly what happens to Eve here.
Genesis 3:6 - And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Eve believed what the serpent said and ate the fruit of the tree, then gave some to Adam who also ate. This is the first sin.
Did Adam and Eve get an unfair deal from God as a result of this action? He had only one commandment for them, and that was to not eat the fruit of the tree, yet they both chose to do this. On the other hand, Adam nor Eve had a sense of good or evil in the Garden; Satan knew this, and then persuaded Eve to eat the fruit.
Both Adam and Eve had a choice, and both chose to disobey the single command of the one who had constructed the garden for them.
Genesis 3:8 - And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
Knowing that they had done wrong, Adam and Eve chose to hide from God. One cannot help but wonder what might have happened had they chose to confess their sin to God.
Their cowardice here was another result of eating the fruit; before, they had walked hand in hand with God in the Garden, but no longer.
Genesis 3:17 - And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life
Here, God reveals the true damage that eating the fruit brought into the lives of men. Knowledge of evil brings sorrow into our lives; if we had no knowledge of evil in any fashion, then sadness would not exist.
Whenever we are sad, it is the result of our own errors or in the errors of others that affect us. Some people have taken this to mean that depression is God's first affliction on mankind, but here He only refers to sorrow, not to depression, which is a clinical condition.
Genesis 3:22 - And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
This is the point where God expels mankind from the Garden of Eden to tend to the ground for food. Much of the personal responsibility, which had previously been taken care of by God, is now in our hands: to work for our food, to reproduce and raise children, to clothe and shelter and provide for ourselves.
With the knowledge of the difference between good and evil, God decided that we should take on the burdens of life as well and find our own paths.
Modern Perspective on Genesis 3
Aside from the obvious issue of sin, this chapter raises one other important point that seemingly reflects very well on both Adam and Eve. If one is to view them as the first married couple, it is clear from Adam's choice to trust in his wife and eat the fruit that there is a great level of trust between them, that they are indeed the "one flesh" described in the previous chapter. Unfortunately, their actions led to the expulsion of mankind from the Garden.
So, what does this chapter really tell us about sin in a modern light? The definition of sin is disobedience of the word of God.
One of the difficulties with the concept of sin is that many people in the modern world tend to think that the sins described in the Bible, especially in reference to the Ten Commandments from Exodus, were written for another time or perhaps don't apply to their lives. To a degree, this is true, but they should not be taken with a grain of salt, either; the absolute definition of what is a sin and what is not a sin is based on an individual's relationship with God. We will see clear evidence of this later with Abraham and many other examples, but it is true today in our own lives.
Most of us do not wish to sin, and usually our sins occur in a situation much like the one Adam and Eve encounter here. Sin is usually just action that results from shortsighted thinking, as is what happened here.
The more difficult issue involving sin is what sort of action constitutes a sin. At this point, all that has been established is that disobeying one of the rules of God is a sin, yet at the end of the third chapter of Genesis, there is only one rule and that is one that we cannot break because we cannot enter the Garden. Discussions of what actually constitutes sin will follow later in Genesis and especially in Exodus, but we will deal with the issue of right and wrong again in the next chapter.