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Genesis

About this book

Disobedience and Expulsion from the Garden

Chapter 3

1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals⁠ that the Lord God had made.⁠ He said to the woman,⁠ “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?”⁠ 2 The woman said to the serpent,⁠ “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard;⁠ 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’”⁠ 4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die,⁠ 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God,⁠ knowing good and evil.”⁠ 6 When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye,⁠ and was desirable for making one wise,⁠ she took some of its fruit and ate it.⁠ She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her,⁠ and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.⁠ 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day,⁠ and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”⁠ 10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”⁠ 11 And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”⁠ 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”⁠ 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the cattle and all the living creatures of the field!⁠ On your belly you will crawl⁠ and dust you will eat all the days of your life.⁠ 15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”⁠ 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains;⁠ with pain you will give birth to children.⁠ You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.”⁠ 17 But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed the voice of52 your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,⁠ ‘You must not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed because of you;⁠ in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.⁠ 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grass of the field.⁠ 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”⁠ 20 The man named his wife Eve,⁠ because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments from skin⁠ for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.⁠ 22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,⁠ he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”⁠ 23 So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden⁠ to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. 24 When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword⁠ to guard the way to the tree of life.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.100:2 and Genesis 3:1

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Genesis shares Ugarit's use of a speaking animal, showing that an animal's voice could carry a story's religious message in a familiar ancient storytelling form.

Passages

KTU 1.100:2

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
The mother of the stallion, the mare, daughter of the spring, daughter of the stone, daughter of heaven and the deep, calls to Shapshu her mother: "Shapshu, mother, carry my message to El at the source of the two rivers, at the meeting of the two deeps: My spell for the bite of the snake, the venomous snake, the snake […]. From it let the charmer destroy, from it let him cast out the venom." Then he binds the snake, feeds the snake […], sets out a chair and sits. She calls to Shapshu her mother: "Shapshu, mother, carry my message to Baal on the heights of Sapan: My spell for the bite of the snake, the venomous snake, the snake […]. From it let the charmer destroy, from it let him cast out the venom." Then he binds the snake, feeds the snake […], sets out a chair and sits.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Genesis 3:1

Hebrew Bible
1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

“... The observation that the Balaam tradition features animals with speech ca- pabilities should not be surprising in the light of other instances in ancient Near Eastern literature. 195 In fact, numerous texts are now known to contain references to talking animals. 196 Of particular interest are texts that feature equids or birds in speaking roles. 197 Texts featuring talking animals are found in Egyptian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Akkadian, and Sumerian literature, and they are usually classified under the generic categories of fable, tale, proverb, [...] Biblical, Hit- tite, and Aramaic literature all provide at least two texts each (Genesis 3, Numbers 22, “Sun God and the Cow,” “Wrath of Telipinu,” “Proverbs of Ahiqar,” DAPT). Ugaritic literature has at least one text (Ḥôrānu and the Mare [KTU 1.100]). ...”
Kenneth C. Way, Donkeys in the Biblical World: Ceremony and Symbol (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2011), 65.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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KTU 1.100:2 and Genesis 3:1

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