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Genesis 3 (NIV)

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Study Resources

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Genesis 3 (NIV)
Commentary 1 source group
Tyndale Commentary 4 notes
TyndaleStudyNotes

Gen.3.1

3:1 Genesis describes the deceiver as a serpent, one of the animals God created (see also 3:14 and study note). He is later identified as Satan, the great enemy of God’s people (Rev 12:9; 20:2). His manipulative language and his disguise as a serpent, the shrewdest of all creatures, show him as a master deceiver. Satan has various methods for opposing God’s...

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3:1 Genesis describes the deceiver as a serpent, one of the animals God created (see also 3:14 and study note). He is later identified as Satan, the great enemy of God’s people (Rev 12:9; 20:2). His manipulative language and his disguise as a serpent, the shrewdest of all creatures, show him as a master deceiver. Satan has various methods for opposing God’s people (see 1 Chr 21:1; Zech 3:1-2); deception remains among his key strategies (cp. 2 Cor 11:3, 14). The Hebrew term for shrewd (‘arum) can be positive (“prudent,” Prov 14:8) or negative (as here; see Job 5:12). It forms a wordplay with “naked” (‘arummim) in Gen 2:25. Adam and Eve were naked and vulnerable; the serpent was shrewd and cunning. • Probably the serpent asked the woman because the prohibition was given to Adam prior to Eve’s creation (see 2:16-17). Adam was probably aware of the serpent’s cunning, having assessed and named all the animals before Eve was created (2:19-20, 23). • Did God really say? The deceiver began by twisting God’s language to cast doubt on God’s goodness. God’s original prohibition applied to only one tree (2:16-17), not to all (any) of them.

Tyndale Open Resources - CC BY-SA 4.0
TyndaleStudyNotes

Gen.3.12

3:12 It was the woman you gave me: Rather than confessing, the man became evasive. He blamed the woman for giving him the fruit and God for giving him the woman.

Tyndale Open Resources - CC BY-SA 4.0
TyndaleStudyNotes

Gen.3.1-24

3:1-24 The rebellion of the man and the woman shattered their unity and harmony with earth, animals, each other, and God.

Tyndale Open Resources - CC BY-SA 4.0
TyndaleStudyNotes

Gen.3.13

3:13 What have you done? is another rhetorical question that is really an exclamation of horror (cp. 4:10). • The serpent deceived me: As the man implicated the woman (3:12), the woman accused the serpent. The serpent did play a role and would be punished (3:14), but that did not release the woman or the man from their guilt.

Tyndale Open Resources - CC BY-SA 4.0
People & Profiles1 item
TyndalePeople and Profiles

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve

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Adam and Eve Adam was the first man, the father of the human race. God created the first couple in his image to populate the earth and rule the created order (Gen 1:26-31). God made Adam from the earth and breathed life into him (2:7); he was to cultivate the garden in which God placed him (2:15), name the animals (2:19-20), and follow God’s instructions (1:28; 2:16-17). God created the first woman as a companion and helper for Adam (2:18-22). Eve’s creation from Adam’s rib portrays the unity that God intended for man and woman in marriage (2:23-25). She is honored as “the mother of all who live” (3:20). After the serpent deceived Eve into rejecting God’s rule, Adam also rebelled (3:1-6). Their willful disobedience disrupted their relationship (3:7) and separated them from God. God looked for Adam after his rebellion; he and Eve were hiding among the trees, already aware of the alienation (3:8). When God questioned him, Adam blamed Eve and, by implication, God (3:12). Their rebellion brought pain, strained relationships, hardship in governing the earth, and death—physical and spiritual (3:16-19, 22-24). Nonetheless, God provided animal skins to cover Adam and Eve (3:21), a...

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Cross Reference8 items
TyndaleCross References

genesis 2:16-17

genesis 2:16-17

TyndaleCross References

genesis 2:16-17

genesis 2:16-17

Dictionary & Themes1 item
TyndaleTheme Notes

The Fall

The Fall

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The Fall Genesis 3 describes how human moral innocence collapsed through rebellion. What God declared as “very good” (Gen 1:31) was no longer completely so. Man and woman ate the fruit that promised knowledge of good and evil, thus breaking God’s command (2:16-17) and attempting to become like God (see 3:5). In doing so, they fell from their sinless state. Alienated from God, one another, and creation, they also became subject to death. Consequently, all humans are “fallen”—born in sin, predisposed to sin (Gen 8:21; Job 4:17-21; Pss 51:5; 103:10; 143:2; Prov 20:9), and awaiting death. When the first man and woman ate the fruit in disobedience to God, they forfeited their own innocence and that of their children, the entire human race (Rom 5:12-14; 1 Cor 15:21-22, 45-49). The expression “original sin” denotes sin’s complete, universal infiltration into individual lives and human society as a result of human rebellion. As people yield to their inherited predisposition to sin, they become responsible for their own wrongdoing (Eccl 7:20; Rom 3:23). The first man, Adam, introduced sin, but the “second Adam,” Jesus Christ, is sin’s antidote (1 Cor 15:3; 2 Cor 5:21). When Christ...

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