Now the snake was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” 2 The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! 5 God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 8 When they heard the sound of the Lord God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 The Lord God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat? 12 The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” 13 The Lord God then asked the woman: What is this you have done? The woman answered, “The snake tricked me, so I ate it.” 14 Then the Lord God said to the snake: Because you have done this, cursed are you among all the animals, tame or wild; On your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.
The purpose of this passage is to explain how sin entered human history through a free choice to distrust God, how that choice fractured communion with God and with each other, and how God immediately responded with judgment tempered by mercy, containing the first promise of ultimate deliverance. The scene is not mainly about disobedience. It is about trust—and how disobedience follows when trust in God erodes.
The snake is introduced as “the most cunning” of the animals the Lord God had made. The first move is not a direct command to rebel but a deceptive reframing of God’s word. The snake speaks as if God’s command were unreasonable and sweeping, as though God had forbidden every tree. The goal is to plant suspicion. If God can be imagined as withholding life, then disobedience will soon look like wisdom.
The woman answers with a basic truth: the trees of the garden are for food. But when she describes the tree in the middle of the garden, her wording becomes more guarded. She adds that they must not even touch it. The text lets us see how temptation works from the inside. God’s command begins to feel heavier and less generous when it is filtered through fear. The enemy does not only oppose God’s law. He distorts the image of God behind the law.
The snake then offers a firm contradiction to God’s warning, denying that disobedience will lead to death. He implies that God is holding something good back from them. The promise “you will be like gods, who know good and evil” is not just a desire to learn more. It is the desire to seize moral authority for oneself. The temptation the snake offers is to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil, what is true and what is false, without receiving that order from God. It is the desire to make themselves the final authority instead of trusting God’s wisdom.
When the woman looks at the tree, the temptation begins to take hold of her heart. It appears good, attractive, and wise. The narrative shows how temptation can make wrongdoing seem like a good choice. She eats, and she gives some to her husband, “who was with her,” and he eats. The text does not allow the man to stand outside the event as an observer. The fall is shared, and the responsibility is shared.
The immediate result is painful clarity. Their eyes are opened, but what they see first is not divine life. They see their nakedness as vulnerability. They use fig leaves to cover themselves. This new self-awareness signals the loss of original innocence. The relationship between the human person and God has been damaged, and the relationship within the human person has been wounded as well.
When they hear the Lord God in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hide. Adam hides out of fear because he knows he has done wrong. This is one of the most telling lines in the passage. The God who had been the source of peace is now experienced as a threat. Fear replaces their trusting relationship with God. The Lord’s call to the man is not a search for information. It is a summons to come out of hiding, as though God is offering a way back rather than immediate annihilation.
The man’s response shows how quickly sin reshapes speech. He says he hid because he was naked. God exposes the deeper issue: disobedience. The man then shifts blame to the woman, and by implication to God who gave her to him. The woman shifts blame to the snake. The pattern is not only disobedience but the fracture of unity. The same distrust that turned the heart away from God now turns persons against each other.
God’s words to the snake reveal both judgment and the first seed of hope. The curse describes humiliation and defeat. Yet the most important line is the declaration of enmity between the snake and the woman, between their offspring: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers” (v. 15), a line many Christians recognize as the first good news (gospel) in Scripture. This announces that evil will not have final possession of God’s human family. The conflict will be real, and the wound will be real, but the outcome leans toward victory. The image of the head being struck points toward a decisive overthrow of the deceiver’s power.
This passage offers a profound view into human nature. It shows that we thrive when we trust our Creator and live within his wisdom, and that we suffer when we set ourselves against him.
Lord God, help us to trust your goodness when our hearts are tempted to doubt. Teach us to hear your word clearly, to turn from deception, and to live in the hope of the redemption you have promised. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
- Bernard Orchard et al., A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (1953).
- Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: Pentateuch (Four Courts/Scepter)
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (2018).
- Raymond E. Brown et al., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990).
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