DISCLAIMER: The following study is admittedly long and sometimes repetitious. It is intended to bring together everything that has happened so far in Genesis and show how each detail fits together to build up to the crescendo that begins in 2:25. I really get wrapped up in this section, so I apologize in advance to anyone who reads through and recognizes some repetition. Some day maybe I'll tighten it up a little. But from my perspective, grasping the significance of the intertwined events so far and their implications is the only way to get the richness of 2:25-3:6.

---

2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

---

This will be an extremely important fact going forward – not only that they were naked, but that their nakedness didn’t bother them.

---

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

---

Remember Adam’s assignment in 2:15 to guard the garden against predators? That responsibility is put to the test for the first time here.

A predator is in his midst in the form of a “serpent.” Will Adam guard the garden?

The Hebrew word for “serpent” here is nchsh (נחש). This is an interesting and difficult word. It definitely does sometimes mean serpent, but the word originates from the adjective “shiny” and has other common meanings related to that.

You can see this clearly in Numbers 21:9. When Moses made a BRONZE SERPENT, he made a nchshth nchsh. Just stare at those letters a moment. You can see that the words are nearly identical. That’s because both “bronze” and “serpent” derive from the word “shiny.”

Following are various ways this very same Hebrew word (nchsh) is translated in the Old Testament other than “serpent”:

• Divination or magic (e.g., Gen 30:27)
• Omen (e.g., Num 24:1)
• Copper, Bronze, or Steel (e.g., 2 Sam 22:35)
• A proper name for people and places (several instances)
  

My mother once established a restaurant that served generous portions of food that was good for you. She called it "Healthy Appetites," which has an obvious double meaning.

Similarly, I believe the Genesis writer intentionally chose a word here with multiple meanings - one that would fit into the story while also providing the theological importance of this creature.

In other words, I believe the writer purposefully chose a word that means both “serpent” and “shiny one” and that we need to pay attention to that double meaning like the original readers would have.

I’m not alone in this interpretation. Many scholars, who know far more than I do, agree with this. Most notably is E.W. Bullinger (1837-1913), an acclaimed Hebrew scholar, in his book The Companion Bible.
[Note: Bullinger also held some views I would not support. But in this case he and I agree.]

To me, it is reasonable to believe that this serpent is a “shiny one” because it also fits the context. Why do I say that? Well, have you ever wondered in this story:

• Why a snake talked to Eve?
• Why Eve wasn’t surprised when a snake talked to her
• Why Eve would trust or obey a snake, since animals were obviously beneath mankind?
• Why snakes, unlike the statement in the curse, don’t actually eat dirt?
  

These are reasonable questions. “Serpent” doesn’t solve these riddles, but I think “Shiny One” does. I believe Eve was talking to a radiant creature; a shiny angel who seemed heavenly and appealing; a creature who seemed wise and god-like to her. This Shiny One appealed to her enough to deceive her.

Satan appeals to people in a similar way today. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:14, Satan masquerades “as an angel of light” – a shiny one, even to us. Do you see the connection? Do you see how “shiny one,” which is a legitimate translation of nchsh, makes this creature more Satan-like than a mere serpent?

We are also told that this Shiny One was craftier than any animal.

Notice that specific wording. The Hebrew text doesn’t say he was “craftier than any OTHER animal.” Some English translations (such as the ESV and RSV) add the word “other.” Most (like the KJV, NASB, and NIV) don’t.
But in Hebrew it just says the serpent was “craftier than any animal.” It doesn’t include the serpent as one of the animals.

I want to get this out on the table… No one would sin if sin weren’t enjoyable. It is. We like it, which is why we do it. The fatal fruit Satan coerced Eve to eat was pleasing to the eye and good for food. It was enjoyable.

The Shiny One utilized those qualities as he began the timeless temptation process with Eve that has worked over and over again with humanity. Luke 4:1-13 describes the same basic pattern when Satan tried to entice Jesus to doubt God’s word.

James 1:14-16, however, describes the process very methodically: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my brothers.”

That’s Satan’s eternal ploy. It goes like this:

1. My own desire (aka, lust) begins to move me away from the safety zone (fellowship with God).
2. Outside of the safety zone, that lust becomes impregnated and gives birth to sin.
3. Sin, its baby, grows up.
4. When sin is an adult it becomes a murderer.
   

That’s what James describes quite vividly, and that is exactly what happened in Genesis 3:1. It started with Eve’s desire (fruit). The Shiny One never told her to sin. Instead, he began by luring Eve away from the safety zone of fellowship with God by causing her to doubt God’s word. Now detached from Him, Eve’s desire grew and gave birth to sin, and that sin resulted in death.

Of course, Satan misrepresented what God said to Eve. God didn’t say she couldn’t eat from any of the trees. He only said she couldn’t eat from one specific tree. Eve tries to stand firm on God’s word on that in the next verses.

---

Genesis 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.' “4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! 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."

---

This shiny, apparently wise spiritual being caused Eve to question what she already understood: “Did God really say that you can’t eat from any of these trees?” That is not what God said, but now Eve had to think it through. In doing so, she became aware of God’s limitations on her – His law.

Satan always begins by causing us to be aware of the ways in which we are limited – whether by our own weaknesses or by the limitations God confers on us. That awareness begins the process of discontentment. We begin to want something more or different than He provides.

James 1:14 says the process begins there, too – that “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

So Satan began with Eve, and begins with us, by first causing us to desire what we don’t or can’t have.


Satan showed Eve that she lacked the knowledge of good and evil that God had. That caused her to focus on what she didn't have and enticed her to want more. When she and Adam acted on this desire for more, their self-awareness increased: they realized they were naked.

Feelings of incompleteness led to desire, desire increased self-awareness, self-awareness decreased God-awareness, and decreased God-awareness led to sin.

I can personally attest that Satan works that way.
I’m thinking of a particular time when Satan turned my attention to my incompleteness and turned

my focus self-ward so that I saw how different I was from God. Like Adam and Eve, I wanted more. I began to doubt my own salvation. Have you been there?

At first I consoled myself by remembering good things I had done - teaching the Bible, tithing generously, reaching out to the lost, helping people in need, loving people who mistreated me, trusting God to provide even in difficult times, etc. I reasoned "I didn't do those things before I was saved. They should make me comfortable about my salvation."

But they didn't. The more I dwelt on them, the more discomfort I felt. I became even more self-aware, more naked. For all the good things I did, I remembered even more bad things. There were ministry opportunities I avoided. Sinful temptations to which I succumbed. Days, weeks, and even months without genuine prayer, etc. My bad deeds outnumbered my good deeds. Was I really even saved?

But then the Holy Spirit directed me away from the tempter's snare. I remembered that the ones Jesus turned away and said He never knew in Matthew 7:22-23 consoled themselves by their ministries too - prophesying, driving out demons in His name, etc.

Works. Deeds. As if they or I are special because we minister. Is a bird a great bird because it whistles? Are crickets better crickets because they chirp? Birds whistle because they are birds and that's what birds naturally do. Crickets chirp because they are crickets and that's what crickets naturally do. They do those things because of who they are. They aren't who they are because they do them. I minister and do other good things because I'm a Christian and that's what Christians naturally do. But those good things are useless in helping me know whether I am in fact a Christian.

And then the Spirit directed my attention again to the only thing that could truly console me - God's unfailing grace displayed against my own unrighteousness.
Like a lustrous diamond displayed against black velvet.

And once again I was ready to tell the world of God's redeeming love rather than wallowing in my incompleteness.

Have you experienced a similar Incompleteness => Desire => Increased self-awareness => Reduced God-awareness => Sin process in your life?
Here’s I’ve been so far in this study:
I suggested that Genesis 1-3 is written in the form of a myth, but that it is not fiction. It describes things that really happened but that are beyond our human comprehension, and it uses both a historical and symbolic way of telling us about them. The things that happened in the beginning happened before corruption and death were in the world, and before there was a separation of fellowship between God and man.

Those differences have far-reaching effects, and they make it necessary for us to receive the historical story through some symbolism. Additionally, the original hearers of the creation and Garden of Eden accounts had less revealed knowledge from God (they had less of a Bible than we do) so they had even less ability to comprehend these things than we do. We’ve been given greater revelation than they through our scriptures, and we can read that progressive revelation back into the original story. It is like a college science major re-reading her 3rd grade science text book. The foundational science she was taught then was accurate. But she can understand more about what that book said now than she could then - because more about science has been revealed to her.

In the beginning, God already existed, and God was one! That is exceptionally important, because the creation was His creation, not something multiple gods created or inherited.

This matters because if there is only one god then there is only one mind, one set of values, one Creator who determines everything – unlike the gods of other creation stories who competed against each other and confused people. If only one Person creates something, that Person gets to decide the parameters of how it can be used, what is right and wrong. It is that one God’s pleasure and purpose for which the Earth and the Heavens were created and are sustained.

When God created the earth, it was empty and without purpose. (Gen 1:2). So God began to infuse it with purpose. He began to very intentionally, very systematically, prepare the earth for what would be His pinnacle creation, mankind. You might remember that His Spirit was moving across the waters, as if pacing back and forth intently devising this Master plan of how to fill and give purpose to this earth in a way that would glorify Him.

So He lit the place up; separated the water from the land; created vegetation that would reproduce; created the sun, moon, and stars; created aquatic life and birds and told them to reproduce; and created animals. And then – when everything was ready – He created mankind in His own image and likeness.

This new creation, who was uniquely like Him, was given dominion over the rest.

1:29-30 says that God gave the vegetation to man and animals for food. People and animals were vegetarians until after the flood, when in Genesis 9:3 God gave “every moving thing that is alive” as food for people just as He had the plants. This vegetarian diet factors into the fruit trees that become so important in the story.

Finally, God rested and made His day of rest holy.

The story from 1:1-2:6 provides an overview of the 7 days of creation. On Day 6 (which is described beginning in 1:27), two distinct but interconnected events are highlighted: “God created man in His own image” and then “He created them male and female.”

A new story begins in 2:7. It is not a continuation of the first. Rather, it provides us a zoomed-in view of the Day 6. It’s similar to reading Cliff Notes and then reading the whole book.

God formed Adam from the dust, breathed His own breath of life into him, and Adam became a “living soul” or “a living breath” (נֶפֶשׁ nephesh, 2:7).

Adam was now composed of both the earth and God. Animals were also composed of the earth (2:19), but Adam uniquely contained both the creation and the creator.

This, I believe, gives us insight into God creating man in His own image. God created man to be like Him in his ability to have dominion, to be creative, and to have His life-giving Spirit!

God planted a garden for man in a region of the world called Eden (which in Hebrew means “delight”). He gave man the privilege of tending, cultivating, and eating from the produce of that garden. Two edible trees are mentioned in particular – the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. These are in the center of the garden.

Every tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye. Adam is told he can eat from any of them except one, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He’ll die if he eats its fruit.

From this point forward, the story revolves around what tree to eat from, and the forbidden tree becomes its focus.

With this temptation and choice before Adam, God said it wasn’t good for him to be alone. First God brought animals to Adam. But they couldn’t help him face this choice. They weren’t like him.

So God created Eve, who was part of Adam himself, to be his helper.

Yes, of course she would also be a “helper” to Adam in being fruitful and multiplying. But the command to reproduce is noticeably absent in this story. It appeared in 1:28 (the first story), during the overview of creation. But just as Eden isn’t mentioned in the first story, reproduction isn’t mentioned in this second story – the zoomed-in story that takes place in Eden.

There is only one command that is mentioned in the second story – the command to eat from any tree except the one that will bring knowledge of good and evil and death. That is the only thing in this story that Adam needed help with – because it sure did look pretty and it was in fact good for food.

Metaphorically speaking, Adam needed help resisting temptation, making spiritual decisions, and obeying God. So God created woman to be a helper for him in that.

Immediately after Eve was created, in 2:25, a simple statement with profound significance is made: Adam and Eve were naked but not ashamed.

Enter the tempter, who is given a name in Hebrew that means bronze, serpent, magic, omen, and shiny one (נחש, nachash). He was attractive and seemed wise.

I believe this is metaphorically telling us that he was a spiritual being who was masquerading as an angel of light. This shiny one appeals to humanity today in the same way he appealed back then, as a counterfeit angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) who tempts us into things that are pleasurable, like that fruit, but wicked as well.

That’s where we essentially left off in the last study.

---

Genesis 3:6: "When 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, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate."

---

Verse 6 tells us what enticed her to make the bad decision. The fruit was EDIBLE (why would God make it edible if I shouldn’t eat it?), the fruit was BEAUTIFUL (if it was bad, wouldn’t it be ugly?), and the tree was DESIRABLE TO MAKE ONE WISE (when I look at it, it arouses a passion in me to be wise like God – how can that be bad?).

James 1:15 describes this phenomenon, too: “desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin.” That’s also where Satan began tempting Jesus – Jesus had fasted for 40 days and Satan began by enticing him to turn stones into bread (Luke 4:3).

Eve accurately repeated to the serpent what God said. She knew and reviewed the command.

Perhaps she added the words “don’t touch,” but God may have said that too and it’s just not recorded. Or maybe she added it to show that she didn’t want to even come anywhere near something God forbade. Either way, we shouldn’t make much of it. Not even touching something you aren’t allowed to eat is a good thing.

But Satan cast doubt upon the consequence of breaking God’s command – that they would die – and then he accurately said that it would make them like God, knowing good and evil.

He capitalized on Eve’s desire to be more like God. Being more like her beloved God, having greater awareness, being able to see things as God saw them ... that appealed to Eve. Perhaps she reasoned “The Shiny One is right! God loves me. He wants great things for me. He wouldn’t kill me for wanting to be more like Him.”

In other words, Satan minimized (by casting doubt upon) the negative consequences and focused Eve’s attention on the positives.

Restated, he redirected Eve away from God and toward self; away from pleasing God toward pleasing herself. Because of this, Eve failed to realize that if God wanted her to be more like Him in that way, He would have provided the opportunity rather than forbidding the opportunity.

These things shifted her attention away from God’s explicit command and resulted in her pursuing something attractive that was outside of God’s will.

Paul described that process in Romans 7:7-13: “7 I would not have come to know sin except through the Law ; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind ; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law ; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died ; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”

The law brings death, just as the command did for Paul.

• “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56).
• “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death” (Romans 7:5).
• “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2).
  

The text says Adam was “with her.” He had observed all of this but failed to uphold his responsibility (2:15) of guarding the garden.

So Eve also gave some of the fruit to Adam. In doing so she shared her wretched fate with her husband, and she probably did it out of love!

Eve was wrong for eating it first and Eve was wrong for offering it to Adam.

Adam was wrong for eating it also, and Adam was wrong for not preventing his wife from eating it.

What is wrong with knowing good and evil? Isn’t it good to know which is which? Don’t Scriptures encourage us to become mature enough to distinguish between good and evil? And isn’t the inability to tell the difference a mark of Christian immaturity? If it is a good thing to know the difference between good and evil, why did God forbid Adam and Eve to eat this fruit?

Consider this: How does God know evil? By experience? NO. He hasn’t “experienced” evil. He knows evil by comparing it to His own desires. If it pleases Him it is good. If not, it is evil.

God’s creatures are supposed to discover the difference between good and evil in the same way. What pleases God is good. Everything else is evil.
In other words, we should identify evil by knowing God and His righteousness.

But now that they had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve knew evil by EXPERIENCE. If they had compared the temptation to God they would have never eaten it.

But from this point onward, mankind began to do what God does - to compare everything to his own desires rather than to God’s desires.

When we become our own standards, we do become like God, but our conclusions are lies and they are destructive. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).