Genesis 3King James Version
The fall. A serpent persuades the woman to eat from the one tree God had forbidden. She eats. The man eats. Their eyes open. They hide. God finds them, pronounces the consequences, and sends them out of the garden with a flaming sword set at the entrance.
The serpent questions God's word, the woman reasons her way toward the fruit, and both she and the man eat. Their eyes open to shame. God finds them hiding, questions them, and each blames someone else. God curses the serpent, pronounces hardship on the woman and man, and sends them east of Eden with new clothes and a closed gate.
The first act of human independence from God is also the first act of shame, blame, and exile, and it costs more than either of them bargained for.
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." Three reasons, all reasonable-sounding, and all beside the point.
The ancient Near East was full of serpent imagery, from Egyptian amulets to Mesopotamian creation stories. Here the serpent is not a fire-breathing monster but a smooth-talking creature that sounds almost reasonable. The horror is in the ordinariness of the conversation.
The serpent, cunning and questioning; the woman, reasoning toward the fruit; the man, present and passive then defensive; God, who confronts and disciplines.
This chapter is referenced across the whole Bible, from Paul's letters to Revelation. It sets up the problem that the rest of scripture tries to answer: what happened to the good creation, and is there a way back? Every theology of sin, salvation, and redemption reads this chapter as ground zero.
For when you have done the thing you knew you shouldn't, and now you're hiding and making excuses. The chapter does not flinch at how it goes, or how familiar it feels.
1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3But 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, lest ye die.
4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5For 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.
6And 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.
7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8And 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.
9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17And 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;
18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22And 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:
23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.