Genesis 3

Ver. 1. — the serpent] That this was the devil’s act, in the serpent, we have the authority of Christ himself, who says, “He was a murderer from the beginning,” John viii. 44; plainly in allusion to this seduction of our first parents, and the mortality thereby induced. The same appears also from the Apostle, who calls the devil or Satan, “the great dragon, that old serpent, which deceiveth the whole world.” Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2, 10. And the author of the Book of Wisdom, ch. ii. ver. 24, who was well acquainted with the doctrines of the Jewish Church, tells us, “Through envy of the devil came death into the world.” Bp. Beveridge, Dr. Kennicott.

— more subtit] And therefore a fitter instrument for the devil, who made use of him; and also a more

— Yea, hath God said, &c.] The best interpreters understand this to have been spoken interrogatively, Hath God indeed said? or, Dost thou think God meant absolutely by saying, &c.? Pyle.

The devil in these words seems to question the kindness of God, in that He did not permit to man the eating of every tree in the garden. Bp. Kidder.

— knowing good and evil.] An Hebrew phrase, signifying as much as to know every thing, or a very enlarged knowledge, as in 2 Sam. xiv. 17 and 20. And on the contrary, to know or speak neither good nor evil, is to know or speak nothing at all, Deut. i. 39; Gen. xxxi. 29. Pyle.

— and they sewed fig-leaves together.] They twisted the branches of the fig-tree about them for coverings: as the true translation is. The fig-tree leaves in eastern countries are so broad, that a few will cover the body of a man. Pyle.

— me.] The devil assaults us where he finds us weakest, as here, in this first sin, he attempts the woman, the weaker vessel. “The serpent beguiled me:” for he knows this is the readiest way to overcome. Jos. Mede. Let the fatal example of the fall of Eve be a warning to others, how they listen to sophistry in opposition to divine truths. For though the tempter, since that time, has no more made use of serpents, in such a way, yet he has other instruments proper to work with, and often does the same thing by the tongues or pens of serpentlike men. Dr. Waterland. 14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, &c.] Namely, because he had beguiled the man and woman, which God hath made, and caused them to transgress his great commandment. He therefore that is the cause and occasion of another’s sin is as hateful to God as the doer, and is liable to as great or rather a greater punishment. May, the serpent’s doom is first read to him, as if he were the archoffender: for which same reason the woman’s sentence comes next, because she had been a sin-maker, and was guilty, not only of her own personal sin, but of her husband’s also. The same might be confirmed from the quality of their several judgments; in that the serpent alone is doomed to be “cursed,” and no such sentence is pronounced either upon the man or upon the woman. Jos. Mede, Bp. Patrick. — thou art cursed &c.] What follows has a reference to the serpent, the instrument; and to Satan, who made use of that creature. As an argument of the detestableness of the sin, and a constant memorial of it, the abused beast is “cursed.” Compare Exod. xxi. 28, 32; Levit. xx. 15, 16; and Gen. ix. 5. The curse upon the serpent consisted, 1, in bringing down his stature, which was probably in great measure erect before this time: “upon thy belly shalt thou go;” or, “upon thy breast,” as some versions have it: 2dly, in the measures of his provision, “and dust shalt thou eat,” inasmuch as creeping upon the ground, it cannot but lick up much dust together with its food: 3dly, in that “enmity,” which hereafter ensued between this creature and mankind: for the wisest naturalists among the heathens (proper witnesses in the present case) have agreed, that there is a mortal enmity between the human and the serpentine species. Bps. Patrick and Kidder, Dr. Kennicott.

— it shall bruise thy head.] “It,” that is, the seed of the woman, which is Christ, as our translation rightly expounds it. But the Latin Vulgate renders it, “Ipea conteret caput tuum,” “She shall bruise thy head,” as if a woman should do it: which the Papists interpreting of the Virgin Mary, ascribe to her this great victory and triumph over sin and Satan; and are taught to say in their addresses to her, “Adoro et benedico sanctissimoe pedes tuos, quibus antiqui serpentis caput calcati:” “I adore and bless thy most holy feet, whereby thou hast bruised the head of the old serpent.” Bp. Beveridge. 16. — I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception;] That is, “thy sorrow in thy conception:” a figure of speech not unusual in Scripture. See Ps. cxvi. 1; Jer. xxix. 11. Jos. Mede. The sentence upon womankind consists, 1, in her sorrow and pain in conceiving and bringing forth children; it being observed that brute creatures bring forth their young with far less pain, difficulty, and danger than women do; 2dly, in her more helpless condition, by reason of which she would need to have recourse to her husband, and be more subject to him and his corrupt will; for whom at first she was designed for a meet-help. Compare 1 Cor. xiv. 34; 1 Tim. ii. 11, 12;

— thy desire shall be to thy husband.] That is, it shall be subject to him: so the phrase is used, chap. iv. 7. Bp. Patrick. By a just retribution, the woman’s desire of gratifying her appetites is punished with the pains of child-birth; and her ambition to vie with gods in knowledge, or to be exalted, with her subjection to her husband, and her submission to his will. Dr. Hales.

— for thy sake;] Because of thy sin; which shall be punished partly by the barrenness of the earth, in its being “cursed,” or not bringing forth fruit so plentifully, nor so easily as it did. Bp. Patrick. 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;] The word “thorns” seems to be put for all noxious plants, shrubs, &c. by which the labours of the husbandman are impeded, and which are only fit for burning. Our word “thistle” does not denote the plant or plants, meant by the Hebrew word, which signifies something of a prickly kind. The word in the Greek version is the same as in Heb. vi. 8, where it is rendered “briers.” We are not to suppose that thorns and briers were now for the first time created: but they now became vexatious; as they grew more abundantly and vigorously, perhaps from favourable seasons; and as man was expelled from his garden to till the land, where they were native, and consequently most prolific and troublesome. Script. illustr. Expos. Ind. — and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;] Be content with such things as the common field produces, instead of the delicious fruits of Paradise. Bp. Patrick. God made this earth amiable and sweet, and the world a scene of happiness to a creature that was to continue in it: but when sin introduced death, God in His goodness “cursed the earth” by a diminution of its excellence, to make the world less desirable to a creature who was so soon to leave it. Dr. Delaney. God condemned man to toil and misery, that he might look for rest somewhere else than on earth. Bp. Wilson.

Genesis 3:2

2. — We may eat of the fruit, &c.] She seems to have understood him, as if he thought God had forbid them to eat of any fruit in the garden. And indeed the foregoing question is ambiguous. Bp. Patrick.

Genesis 3:4

4. — Ye shall not surely die:] As before he called in question God’s kindness to man, so does he here deny God’s veracity or truth: and deserves the character, which our Saviour gives him, of “a liar,” John viii. 44. Bp. Kidder. From this first lie that was told in the world by the devil himself, he seems to be more particularly called by our Saviour, “The Father” of lies. Dr. Wells.

Unbelief is not only a great sin of itself, but one great cause of all other sins. It may be truly called the Mother of sin, as the devil is the Father: for it was that, which by his instigation brought forth sin at first into the world; and it is that which still maintains and keeps it. When the old serpent assented our first parents, the first attack he made was upon their faith; and when that was once shaken, he soon overcame them. Bp. Beveridge.

Genesis 3:5

5. For God doth know &c.] The first accuser that ever was in the world was a false accuser; and that was the devil. He was “a liar from the beginning;” and the first false report he raised, was of the Most High: unjustly accusing God Himself unto our mother Eve, in a few words, of no fewer than three great crimes at once, Falsehood, Tyranny, and Evey. He was then a slanderous accuser of his Maker; and he hath continued ever since a malicious accuser of his brethren. Bp. Sanderson.

— your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,] The eyes of your understanding, which are now half-shut, shall be fully opened, and ye shall be full of divine knowledge, like your Maker. Bp. Hall. Or, like the angels of God, who are frequently called “gods” in Scripture. Bp. Patrick.

Be our ends and aims what they will, unless we arm ourselves with strong resolutions beforehand, not to do any thing we know to be unlawful upon any terms, seem it otherwise never so expedient; and then afterwards use all our best prayers and endeavours by God’s grace to hold our resolutions, we are gone. Satan is cunning, and we are but weak, and he will be too hard for us, if he do but find us at all staggering in our resolutions to

Man’s shameful fall. God arraigneth Before CHRIST 4004. devis. 24.

Genesis 3:6

6. And when the woman saw &c.] She could conclude that it was good for food, only by the serpent’s eating of it before her eyes, and by seeing that he did not thereupon die, as God had threatened: so she gave him credit and distrusted God’s word. Bp. Wilson.

— did eat.] Her sin was great and various; being guilty of ambition, incredulity, ingratitude, curiosity, inordinate desire, open rebellion against God, and the drawing aside of her husband, and the involving of him in sin, and their posterity in misery also. Bp. Kidder.

— and gave also unto her husband with her.] Besides the aggravations common to both our parents, Eve adds one more to her weight, in that she was not content to sin herself alone, but she allured, and drew her husband also into the like horrible transgression with her; whereby she was not only guilty of her own personal sin, but of her husband’s also. And this added so much to her former sins, that St. Paul speaks of her, as if she had been the only transgressor; “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” † Tim. ii. 14. So great and horrible a thing it is in the eye of God, to be the cause or mover of another’s sin. Jos. Mede.

Genesis 3:7

7. And the eyes of them both were opened.] They had no sooner transgressed than they began to reflect upon the guilt, and feel the fatal consequences of so doing. Their understandings were indeed “opened,” not in the sense the tempter had promised; but in a manner that discovered to them their own folly, degeneracy, and shame. Pyle.

— and they knew that they were naked;] Who knows not the story of Adam’s fall? Who hath not heard of the sin of Eve our mother? If there were no Scripture, yet the unexampled irregularity of our whole nature, which all the time of our life runs counter to all order and right reason; the woeful misery of our condition, being a scene of sorrow without any rest or contentment; this might breed some general suspicion, that from the beginning it was not so: that He, who made us lords of His creatures, made us not so worthless and

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.

Genesis 3:8

8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden] The sound of the Majestick Presence, or the glory of the Lord, approaching nearer and nearer to the place, where they were. For the “walking” is to be referred to the voice, and not to the Lord. Bp. Patrick.

— hid themselves] Their very reason was so corrupted, as to think they could hide themselves, as wild beasts run into a wood when they see a man. Bp. Wilson.

Genesis 3:9

9. — the Lord God called unto Adam.] Emphatically called, JAROVAN ELOHIM, God the Lord. By which, in the language of Philo, according to the opinion of all the ancient Fathers, is to be understood God the FATHER, speaking by CHRIST, the LOGOS, the WORD, or Son of God: the Messenger and Representative of the Father, “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person;” who appeared in, and spake from, the Shechinah, or cloud of glory; the same cloud of light, with its heavenly host of angels, from whence He communed with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, and the Patriarchs; and communicated His will to, and conducted, the Israelitish nation. For of God the Father it is expressly said, “No man hath seen Him at any time,” John i. 18; vi. 46. “Neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape,” John v. 37. Pyle.

— Where art thou?] Such questions do not argue ignorance in Him that asks them; but are intended to awaken the guilty to a confession of their crimes. As appears from chap. iv. 9, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Of whom, when Cain stubbornly refused to give an account, the Lord said immediately, (to shew that He needed not to be informed,) “the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Bp. Patrick.

Genesis 3:10

10. — because I was naked;] They became sensible that they were divested of their inward purity; they also blushed at their bodily nakedness, of which before they were not ashamed. This shame was part of their punishment; and it is entailed upon their posterity, as a standing memorial of the sins that occasioned it, being an impression from God upon their spirits: for no other account can be given of its being so universal as it is. Bps. Patrick and Wilson.

Genesis 3:11

11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?] Adam appears to have avoided a confession of the cause,

Before CHRIST 4004. Adam and Eve. The serpent is cursed. Before CHRIST 4004. the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Genesis 3:12

12. — The woman whom thou gavest to be with me.] He throws the blame upon his wife, which however he did not intend should rest there, but recoil back upon his Creator. “I have eaten,” says he, “but the woman gave me of the tree:” even the woman, “whom thou gavest to be with me,” or to be my constant companion. Thus we are apt to excuse and palliate our faults; by laying that load upon others, with which we ought to charge ourselves. Dr. Kennicott, Bp. Patrick. From the beginning man hath always been apt to lay the blame of his faults where it can least lie, upon goodness and perfection itself. The very first sin, that ever man was guilty of, he endeavoured to throw upon God. And his posterity are still apt to excuse themselves the same way. Abp. Tilberson.

Genesis 3:13

13. And the Lord God said unto the woman, &c.] He from whom no secrets are hid, He that formed the heart of man, and knows all the works we do, He that searcheth and trieth the heart and reins, even He will first examine the fact, will first hear what miserable man can say for himself, before his sentence shall pass upon him: not out of ignorance of what was done; for how should the omniscient God be ignorant? but out of His wonderful clemency and unspeakable moderation towards men: I say, towards man: for to him alone He shews this favour: for as for the serpent, we see He vouchmeds not to ask him one question, nor to wait for what he could say for himself, but presently without examination proceeds to judgment against him. Jos. Mede. — What is this that thou hast done?] Who would not think this rather the speech of a familiar and condoling friend, than of so great a Judge, so greatly offended? Here is no word of asperity, but of lenity: no meaning, no upbraiding terms; but only, “What is this that thou hast done?” Jos. Mede. — and the woman said, The serpent beguiled me.] My weakness was deceived by the cunning of the devil. Thus she also threw the blame upon another. But God, no doubt, convinced them both of the greatness of their guilt, and the miserable condition into which they were fallen by their transgression, before He ended this discourse with them. This shews the infinite mercy of the Creator of all, who would not abandon them, but sought after them to “save” them, when they had “lost” themselves. Bp. Patrick. — beguiled] This first act of the devil is that wherein we may behold, “as in a glass,” the art he still weth to tempt us to sin, and bring us to utter destruction. His practice is uniformly to “beguile.” He presents all things fair to our face, and suffers not evil to appear before us in its own deformed shape; for then every man would fly from it. When he would tempt a

Genesis 3:15

15. — I will put enmity &c.] This last particular more peculiarly refers to the devil or Satan, who made use of the serpent as an instrument, and is called a serpent, Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2. “Thy seed;” that is, The apostate spirits, and all those that in wickedness resemble their father, the devil, John vi. 70; viii. 44; Acts xiii. 10. “Her seed;” that is, the Messiah or Christ, (who is peculiarly the seed of the woman, Isa. vii. 14; Gal. iii. 16; iv. 4; and His members, Eph. vi. 11, 12; Rev. xii. 13. “It shall bruise thy head;” that is, the seed of the The punishment of mankind. Before CHRIST 4004. seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Genesis 3:17

17. And unto Adam he said,] For Adam’s transgresin sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Genesis 3:19

19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.] As some of God’s curses (such is His goodness) are promises as well as curses; as is that of the “enmity,” between the woman’s seed and the serpent’s; so some of God’s curses (such is his justice) are precepts as well as curses; as is that of the woman’s subjection to the man. This of eating our bread in the sweat of our face is all the three: it is a curse; it is a promise; it is a precept. It is a curse; in that God will not suffer the earth to afford us bread, without our sweat. It is a promise; in that God assureth us, we shall have bread for our sweat. And it is a precept too, in that God enjoined us, if we will have bread, to sweat for it. Bp. Sanderson. All Adam’s children are bound to labour; for that which was said unto Adam, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” is likewise said unto us. Bp. Latimer.

Genesis 3:20

20. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve;] He had before called her “woman” as her common name, or a name for her and all her sex, because she was taken out of man: and now he called her Eve, because he had found she was still to be “the mother of all living.” Before CHRIST 4004. to bad. Their first clothing : and casting out of Paradise. wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Genesis 3:31

31. — did the Lord God make coats of skins.] This is not to be understood literally. God is frequently said to do that which is done by His order and approbation. Dr. Kennicott.

It is probable that they were the skins of beasts slain in sacrifice, which was then first instituted in ratification of the gracious covenant, just made by God with our first parents; and which was intended the better to represent to them their guilt, and that the promised Seed should vanquish the devil, and redeem them by shedding His blood. Bp. Patrick.

— coats of skins.] Skins have been worn as clothing by many nations; the Tartars, the Hungarians, the Laplanders, the Finlanders, the Russians, still wear skins or furs; the ancient heroes of Greece and of Asia covered themselves with the spoils of lions, of tigers, and wild animals; while the ancient Germans wore short coats of sheep-skins. A skin in its natural state is an effectual defence against both heat and cold; and for duration nothing surpasses it. Script. illustr. Expos. 1.

Genesis 3:32

32. — as one of us.] See note on chap. i. 26.

Genesis 3:34

34. — to keep the way of the tree of life.] To shew us that eternal life is not to be obtained by us, it being out

of our reach, unless Jesus Christ give us power to eat of the tree of life. Bp. Wilson.

This “flaming sword,” or, as it may be rendered by an usual figure of speech, sword-like or pointed flame, is generally considered as a sensible symbol of the Divine Presence: resembling perhaps the flame, that appeared to Moses in the bush, Exod. iii. 2, or that afterwards rested on the heads of the Apostles at the day of Pentecost, in the form of “fiery tongues,” or tongue-like flames, Acts ii. 3. And it was here “placed” or stationed between two cherubim, or glorious angels, according to the ancient Jewish interpretation, furnishing probably the archetype of the Shechinah, first in the tabernacle in the wilderness, and afterwards in Solomon’s temple. Dr. Hales.

The garden of Eden was the emblem of the Church upon earth. Man was not made in this Paradise, but placed there, after he was formed out of the earth, chap. ii. 8; so we are not of the Church by nature, but by grace. By nature we are all framed out of the same common and corrupt mass of human generation; which made David say, “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” But by the grace of God we are taken at Baptism out of that state of pollution, and planted within the pale of his own garden the Church: here we are sanctified and cleansed; here we enter into covenant with God. But as Adam, on his breach of covenant, was expelled from the garden of Eden, to “till the ground from whence he was taken,” so shall we be ejected out of the communion of saints, and Church of the living God, if wilfully we break our solemn vow, and do not return to God by a true repentance, founded on a lively faith in His mercy through Jesus Christ. Wogan.

Chap. IV. The portion of Scripture, at the beginning of this chapter, contains a very remarkable history, in which the first man that ever was born, is represented as a murderer; and the first person, that ever died, as murdered. These were the sad effects of Adam’s transgression. The guilt of it was manifested in his first-born, and its mischievous consequences in his second. Bp. Conybeare.

Ver. 1. — Cain.] A name emphatically signifying possession, and given him, either to express the satisfaction they had in seeing the general promise of their living yet longer, and propagating their kind, actually fulfilled; or else from the earnest expectation they had, that this son was to be the promised Seed, the Messiah and Saviour of mankind. Pyle.

— I have gotten a man from the Lord.] As the man, by the first sentence he uttered after God’s promise of a Redeemer, expressed his faith in the promise,

The birth and occupation of Cain and Abel. Before CHRIST 4001. a feeder. end of days. or, goats.

and his expectation of life and redemption by the “Seed of the woman,” (chap. iii. 20;) so likewise did the woman herself, in the first speech which is recorded of her, when, upon the birth of Cain, she expressed herself in this manner, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” Dr. Berriman.